Hollow
by Splinter-the-dragonqueen
Summary: Now it was just getting insane. Not only could they not remember what happened yesterday, but they both had the same head wounds. Either something happened between the two or they're just going crazy. Most likely both...Follow Zim and Dib as they try to figure out what exactly happened the previous day.  Rated T for Safety. ZADF
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

A/N So I haven't written anything for a while and decided that I needed to do another ZADF story because who doesn't like Zadf? :) Uh, this isn't meant to be a ZADR story but I know some of you can turn just about anything into a ZADR story…so yeah. I am making it teen but that is probably unnecessary…I'd rather be safe than sorry. Uh, yeah, that's it…Have fun reading! Remember: No Flames no matter what…suggestions are good but no flames

Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah, I don't own Invader Zim

It wasn't the fact that he had woken up bleeding.  
>No, the head wound could have come from anywhere really.<br>Another experiment gone wrong...  
>Gir's foolishness...<br>Dib's interference...  
>Nor was it the fact that he had no idea why he was down in his lab bleeding or how the wound had come to be.<br>He supposed that the memory loss would have come from the hit to the head.  
>Or maybe his pak?<br>No...His pak seemed fine. But of course, a wound to the pak was much more important the head. Meaning it would have healed faster.  
>But he wasn't worried about that either.<br>It was the fact that he had woken up...  
>From sleep...<br>something he hadn't done sense training...  
>and it scarred him...<p>

Something was wrong.

Something was VERY wrong.

He hadn't necessarily been sleeping. Unconscious was more likely. He had never slept in his life. He had, however, been knocked unconscious before. But still, if he had been knocked out by someone, he should find the culprit-

"Master?"

The young irken looked up from his desk drowsily. His eyes glazed over and a trail of green blood dripping down the side of his head.

"Whatisit?" He slurred annoyed. "Can't you see I'm...thinking?"

"It is almost time for skool." The computer pronounced in a bored tone. "I was wondering if you were ever going to wake up."

Zim scoffed and wanted to snap back at the machine, but decided against it. He didn't feel like arguing this early in the morning.  
>Or at least he thought it was morning.<p>

The alien rubbed at his eyes, feeling the familiar click of his human contacts. Great...not only had he slept, he had slept with his contacts on.

Zim got up from his work desk. The desk was covered in various papers and blueprints showing his ideas for new ingenious plans. His green blood had dripped onto the top paper. His wig lay on top of the mess like a dead animal.

A sharp stab of pain came to his head causing him to momentarily lose balance. He quickly grabbed onto the desk to regain his composure.

Irk. That probably wasn't a good sign.

Zim raised a shaky hand to his head, panting slightly.  
>It stung as he pressed it on the wound causing him to hiss in pain. As he removed the hand he noticed his glove was gone, which was odd. He almost never took off his gloves.<p>

"Er, Computer?" Zim asked, still looking at his bloodied hand.

"Yes?"

"Uh, What happened last night?" The irken almost whispered.

The computer hesitated for a moment. "Er...How should I know?"

That snapped the irken out of his drowsy trance. He glared up at the ceiling. "What do you mean 'how should I know'? You're the security system!"

"I was busy." It retorted.

Zim scowled. "Busy doing what exactly?"

"O-oh, you know...computer things."

"Being a security system is your whole job!"

"Uh...well. Your job is to take over the planet and you haven't done that yet either!" The computer stammered back.

Zim stood there slack jawed for a second, too dumbfounded that the computer would say something like that.

He must have been asleep still. That was it. He would wake up soon. His computer wasn't talking blasphemous lies. He wasn't bleeding. Everything was fine.

However, the sharp pain his head told him that this was, in fact, the real world and he wasn't dreaming.

Zim's antennae laid flat down to his head in anger. "WHAT!" He snarled, his hands balling up into fists.

"Uh-Uh..." The computer's disk drive whirred, processing an excuse.

"Just-never mind." Zim hissed throwing his disheveled wig onto his head and starting towards the elevator. "Obviously you're broken. I'll fix you when I get back from skool."

The computer seemed to sigh in relief. Tallest, what a strange device.

Zim stepped into the elevator and shivered as cold metal met bare skin. He looked down at his clawed toes. He had taken off his shoes too?

Zim shook his head and pressed a button on the elevator's wall. The lift started whirring softly and he ascended.

It took him some time to get to the desired room since he was in the lowest room of his base. But eventually the elevator gave a cheerful ding and the doors opened. He wasn't going to the surface just yet. He wanted to fix the gash in the side of his head first. If he didn't he was sure Dib would never let him hear the end of it.

Irk he could imagine it now 'hey Zim, what's with your head? You're up to something I know it! Another one of your experiments gone wrong? Blah blah blah…'

Just thinking about it gave him a headache. He walked into the small storage room. It was the only part of the base that had what you humans would call a 'bathroom'. Except the bathroom was more like a closet with a mirror and a sink with irken water flowing out of it. His base purified Earth's water and transformed it into irken water, leaving him with an unlimited supply.

Zim stomped through the door and fumbled for the light. He hissed as he turned the switch; the blinding light meeting his already sore eyes. It took a few seconds for his ocular implants to adjust and he could see again.

The invader groaned at the sight of his wound. It looked fairly deep and it was already clear that it would leave a scar for a few years or so.

He spent a while cleaning it. He didn't want any nasty earth germs getting into it and infecting it. That was the last thing he needed. Once the wound was relatively clean and had stopped bleeding, he set down the towel he had been using and moved onto his wig.

The wig was a mess. It looked like someone had chewed on it. Well knowing his luck, Gir and Minimoose probably had. He fluffed it up a bit to his liking before placing it over his antennae. The whole cleaning process had made him feel more awake. His head felt a little clearer. However, he still couldn't remember what had gone on the night before. Come to think of it…he couldn't remember much from yesterday at all. Just little blurbs. Ah well, it would come back to him eventually. Maybe he wasn't as awake as he though? Probably…

Zim decided to take off his contacts until he had to leave for skool though. They were stinging pretty badly. He went to put them on the corner of the sink when something caught his eye.

Zim raised an antenna in interest. On the floor there were his black gloves.

How strange…

The young irken stuffed his contacts in his pak and picked up the gloves. He quickly slipped them over his hands. Each of the fingers, he noticed, had been torn out, showing off his claws. A sticky red liquid caked the border of the tears. That's when he noticed that the floor was splattered in some of the sticky red stuff. Not too much, but still pretty weird.

Zim shrugged, figuring Gir had spilled something on the gloves and tried to eat them. You never know what Gir tries to eat.

Finally he was ready. He turned off the lights and headed out into the storage room again. He grabbed the handle to the door to close…oh…wow…

The outside of the door was covered in deep slash marks. It looked like someone had taken a knife and started hacking away at it. But the marks were too deep and wide to have been made by a knife.

Zim ran his finger through the nearest mark. What could have done that? Gir wasn't that strong…or smart. He couldn't have made these marks. Neither could Minimoose. The computer could have maybe.

And the computer had been acting weird this morning…

That must have been it.

Zim inhaled suddenly out of breath. His heart was pounding and he was panting relatively fast. His body made him back away from the door.

What on irk was going on?

"HI YEAH MASTAH!" A shrill voice pierced through the silence and pretty much scarred Zim to death.

Zim popped up on his mechanical spider legs by instinct but because of the rapid motion they couldn't get a good grip on the floor. He ended of slipping and falling on to his back with a thud.

"Woops…"

Zim stared angrily up into two glowing cyan eyes. "Giiiiiiiir! How many times have I told you not to sneak up on Zim?"

"Hmm! Let me think! Uh…CHICKEN?"

Zim sighed and propped himself back onto his feet with his spider legs. Then he let them slip back inside his pak.

He dusted himself off and held his head up high, glaring down at the little robot who sat with his legs crossed below his master. "Gir."

"YES!" He answered gleefully.

"What are you doing down here?" Zim started walking towards the elevator, motioning to Gir to follow.

Gir squeezed one eye shut and tilted his head, as if the question was too complex for him to handle. "Uh, yous told me to remember."

"Zim did no such thing." Zim swallowed, suddenly feeling his throat go dry.

The robot got up and started to follow. "Ya-huh. Of course you did silly muffin."

"Oh, then what did I say?" Zim stepped into the elevator with Gir.

"You told me not to say or I couldn't have no more barbeques in the living room." Gir stuck out his tongue.

"Gir." Zim pressed. "If I said something last night, I need to know what."

Gir made a zipping motion on his mouth. "Nu uh."

The alien sighed. He would have to ask later. Gir usually was easily willed into anything, but he seemed unlikely to give up the information.

Why was all his technology acting up today?

Finally the elevator came to a halt and Zim climbed out of the toilet, soon followed by his robot minion.

Gir went running off into the living room squealing about something or another. Zim just shook his head and followed behind.

Giving a quick glance at the time on the kitchen clock, he decided it was about time to head out. He didn't want to be late to class again…not after last time. Ugh, Mrs. Bitters could be nasty sometimes. She could put any Vortian in a mental hospital.

However, he was still missing his shoes. "Hey Gir."

"YEASH!" Gir was now situated upside down on the couch gazing at the TV in awe.

Zim stepped in his line of vision in order to gain his attention. Gir gave his master a sad look. "Why you no let me watch TV?"

Zim rolled his eyes. "Gir, what happened to my boots?"

Gir snuck a glance to the side of Zim. Zim just moved over a bit in order to block the view again.

Gir gave an annoyed squeal. "Moosey had them."

"Oh? And where is he now?" Zim crossed his arms.

"I dunno." The robot finally gave up trying to look at the TV and took an interest in his foot instead.

Zim let out a groan. "Computer?"

"What." It snapped rather harshly.

"Where is Minimoose?" Zim tapped his foot. It shouldn't have been this complicated to find his boots.

"Behind the couch."

"Why would he be-ugh, you know what! The world doesn't make sense." Zim climbed onto the cushions, pushing Gir out of the way.

"Or maybe you're just too stupid to understand it." The computer mumbled. Zim gave the ceiling a death glare before leaning over the backside of the couch.

"I'll deal with you later." Zim hissed under his breath. Too his relief Minimoose was, in fact, lying down behind the couch seemingly sleeping over Zim's boots.

Zim extended a spider leg from his pak and used it to move the tiny robot over so that he could retrieve his boots.

It took him some time to get his boots. He had a pretty bad aim. But after a while, he scooped up both shoes and was able to put them on. As he slipped his second shoe over his clawed toes, he noticed that something was covering the bottoms. Analyzing them closer he found dried mud and a few pieces of earth foliage.

Strange…he didn't remember going outside yesterday.

Zim shrugged it off, already running late. He hopped off the couch and headed for the door. "Zim is leaving." He pronounced to no one in particular.

"No one cares." The computer responded as on cue.

Zim gave the machine one last glare before closing the door and leaving for skool.

A/N: Sorry if this chapter was a little dull, it'll pick up pretty soon :) hope you liked it so far


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Hi again! I wanted to thank **OhHowDelightfullyDreadful** and **Invader Phoenix**for reviewing! Thanks guys! Here's the next chapter for you :)

Disclaimer: Still don't own invader Zim, Viacom does…If I did I would make them do more episodes

…

_Zim?_

_What are you doing here?_

_Do you know what time it is!_

_I don't have time for this, get out!_

_Come on Zim, stop fooling around, we have skool tomorrow._

_..._

_Zim?_

_Hello?_

_This better not be another one of your schemes!_

_ZIM!_

_ANSWER ME!_

_**Run**_

_What?_

_**R-run! It's...too strong to handle!**_

_What are you talking about?_

_**RUN DIB!**_

_**RUN**_

"NOOOOOO!" Dib screamed, sitting strait up and throwing his arms out to deflect the blow. "STOP!"

Dib looked around with blurred vision. He was still in his room…and his attacker was gone, or so it seemed. It was safe for the moment. He sat there panting for a second, sweat pouring down his forehead. There was a loud, obnoxious beeping coming from his side. "Wha?"

"DIB! WAKE UP AND TURN OFF YOUR STUPID ALARM!" He heard an angry voice call from downstairs.

"Oh." The boy sighed, realizing it had just been a dream. He flopped back down onto his pillow, not ready to get up just yet…just a few more precious minuets of sleep…

"DIB! DON'T MAKE ME CALL SECURITY!"

Or not.

Dib growled, fumbling for his glasses. "Yeah, yeah...I'm up."

Once he slipped his glasses on, Dib turned off the buzzing alarm and glanced at the time. 6:03 am.

He pushed himself out of bed groggily and shuffled across his room. Ugh, his muscles ached in protest at the movement. He felt like he had just run a marathon. His feet felt like jello. Not to mention there was a completely awful pounding on the side of his head.

He felt kind of disoriented as he made his way out into the hallway. But he wasn't exactly all awake yet. And he wasn't much of a morning person to begin with.

Dib stepped into the bathroom and flicked on the lights. He blinked, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the lighting.

Once he could see again, Dib walked over to the shower. He turned on the water to hot and took off his pajama shirt.

As he went to go put his glasses on the bathroom sink, something caught his eye in the mirror. Something scarlet...

Dib did a double take and almost fell over from shock. As he looked in the mirror again he found there to be dried blood all down the side of his head.

Suppressing the urge to scream like a little girl, Dib quickly grabbed the closest towel and pressed it to his head.

"GAZ!" He yelled and ran out into the hallway like a madman.

"What?" He heard her voice from downstairs. Dib sucked in a deep breath and quickly ran down the stairs.

He stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked around. No sign of Gaz. "GAZ?"

"Would you shut up already? God, I need to concentrate!" He heard her growl from inside the kitchen.

Dib ran through the kitchen doorway. "GAZ! CALL 911!"

Gaz was calmly situated in her chair at the kitchen table. She was currently playing a video game and simultaneously scarfing down a bowl of cereal.

"Put on a shirt Dib, no one wants to see that." She said without even looking up.

"This is serious Gaz! I'm bleeding!" Dib took the towel of his head and pointed to the wound.

"You make it too easy to make fun of you so I'm going to let that one slide." Gaz sighed and glanced up from her video game. She looked at the wound for a second and then scoffed. "It's not even bleeding anymore. It should be dried by now."

"What do you mean it should be dried by now?" Dib looked at the cloth he had been holding up to his wound. It didn't even have a mark on it. "Oh..."

"Yeah." Gaz snapped. "Now go get dressed or something."

Dib started to turn, but something seemed a bit off. "...how did you know that it was dry blood?"

"Because cuts don't tend to bleed for that long a time." Gaz seemed to be getting annoyed.

"But...I'm confused." Dib said this more to himself than to his sister. 

"God you're so irritating Dib. Just go get ready for skool and stop bugging me!" Gaz closed her game slave and glared at the boy.

"How did I get this?" Dib ignored her. "You didn't have anything to do with it, did you? Cause I swear if you did this I'm going to tell da-"

"No I didn't. You came home like that last night." Gaz ate another spoonful of cereal. "I figured you were going emo or something."

"Geesh, thanks for your concern." Dib shook his head. "So I came home last night bleeding…and I didn't do anything about it?"

"That's what I said."

"But-"

"Look Dib, as much as I would love to play 20 questions with you, I prefer not to be late for skool. So shut up, get dressed and let's go."

And with that she got up from her chair and started to put her dishes away.

Dib bit his lip and turned to go back upstairs. So he had come home bleeding? Why hadn't he been freaking out? I mean what had he been doing yesterday? Let's see…he went to Skool like normal. Then after skool he had walked home…and then….

"Gah!" A sharp pain rushed into Dib's skull, almost knocking him off the side of the stairs in surprise. He quickly grabbed the side of his head and closed his eyes. After a few seconds the pain eased away, leaving his a bit dazed.

Dib shook his head a bit and kept walking upstairs. Why couldn't he remember anything from last night?

Maybe he could pry some more information out of Gaz on the way to skool. Yeah...he'd try that.

Dib finally got up to the bathroom. He took off the rest of his clothes and hopped in the shower.

He spent some time cleaning off the dried blood. It was a long and painful process, but finally all that was left of the wound was a small scar.

Once he was done in the shower, Dib dried off a got dressed. He put on his normal so-so shirt and his black trench coat.

He quickly checked his computer for any updates from the Swollen Eyeballs. There was nothing of interest so he moved onto email. Wait…he had a new message from DarkBootie. He clicked on it, wondering why the message had shown up here instead of the Swollen Eyeball Network website.

_Agent Mothman,_

_Unfortunately we could not find the creature in our system database. If it is not alive tomorrow see if you can bring it in for dissection. Try to get it back to health until it is ready to travel. Maybe we can get more information if it is alive. Until then, if you need equipment, don't hesitate to ask. Good Luck. And don't tell anyone about this creature. _

_~DarkBootie_

Dib read the email at least five times before sitting back in his chair. What did he mean? Dib hadn't found any other creatures besides Zim…why would Darkbootie…

Dib started to reply to the email but glanced at the computer's clock and decided he would have to ask later. He was going to be late for skool of he didn't hurry.

Dib shut off his computer and headed out of his room. As soon as he got to the top of the stairs, something else caught his eye.

"Strange." He said out loud, kneeling down to get a closer look.

There were small scratches on the hard wood floor on the corners of the stairs. Small, but still relatively visible.

"What could have made these? They weren't here before." Dib mused.

"DIB STOP TALKING TO YOURSELF. IT'S ALMOST TIME TO GO."

Dib rolled his eyes and stood up. He would have to examine the marks more closely when he got home.

He walked down the stairs and headed to go get his shoes on. His sister was now watching TV on the couch.

Dib went over to go put on his shoes. He picked up his boots.

Huh...

His boots were caked in mud and leaves. Strange, he hadn't remembered walking into mud.

"Hey Gaz, did you use my boots?" He asked over his shoulder.

Gaz turned off the TV and gave him a glare. "Why on Earth would I use your boots Dib?"

Dib shrugged and put the other boot on. Then he slung his backpack over his shoulder and opened the door. "Ready?"

Gaz nodded and grabbed her own backpack. She followed close behind as they walked outside to meet the bus for skool.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

A/N OMG GUYS I AM SOOOOO SORRY I LEFT THIS FOR SO LONG! I really have had no time to work on this! If you have followed any of my other stories, you would see that I like to update every week. So I really am sorry! It's just been hard with high school and work and homework and prom coming up….yeah, you understand right? So again, sorry for the wait and the fact that this is a short chapter. I promise I will have more up sooner than last time.

…

Zim tried to not gawk at Dib.

He tried so hard.

But it was impossible not to.

As soon as the Dib-filth had walked into the room, Zim had felt something off. The room had seemed to shift in the atmosphere a bit.

A dull ache arose in the back of his head and his antennae threatened to rise forward.

Zim snuck one more glance at the boy.

He had the same head gash as Zim had. However, while Zim's wound was already forming into a scar, Dib's still looked raw and painful.

Dib probably hadn't even realized Zim had a wound.

But the boy did seem to suspect Zim had something to do with his head gash. He kept sending nasty glares to the alien.

Suddenly, the late bell rang, breaking the two boys out of their glaring contest.

Mrs. Bitters drifted into the room, shutting and locking the door behind her.

"Good morning class. We have a lot to cover today so stop your conversing and open your books to page one thousand and seventy three." She hissed, floating over to her desk.

Zim sighed, shaking his head a bit. He took out his book from under his desk like the other students and put it down with a 'thud'.

"Before we begin..." Mrs. Bitters stood up a bit in her chair. "Dib and Zim. You failed to come to your detention last evening. So you will be serving lunch detention for your little outbursts yesterday."

Zim and Dib exchanged confused glances that quickly transformed into looks of anger.

"I trust you two won't disrupt class today." She bit out slowly. It sounded more like a threat.

The class giggled at the two boys. Mrs. Bitters silenced them and class began as normal.

Or at least as normal as a class with an alien and a paranormal investigator can be.

...

"This is all your fault Zim."

"Why is it my fault? Obviously your stupid big head is the cause for our prison session."

"It's called detention, not a prison session."

"Is there any difference?" Zim growled and laid his head on the desk.

Mrs. Bitters had decided to make lunch a little longer than usual, just to make their punishment more unbearable.

"But seriously though...what did you do!" Dib poked Zim's forehead which issued another growl from the alien.

"I told you, I have done nothing! What more do you want?" Zim hissed.

"So you have no idea why we are here then?"

"For the hundredth time NO! Do you have a hearing impairment or is your brain too small to fathom the English language!" The young invader sat up in his chair and glared down at Dib.

Dib grimaced a bit and moved his attention to the front of the room. "Geesh, touchy today." He murmured.

Zim put his head back down on the desk. Ever sense Dib had been forced to sit in the desk next to him, he had gotten a growing headache.

He wondered if it had to do with the fact that Dib's voice was terribly annoying, or something else...

"How did you get cut?" Zim's own voice surprised him a bit. He hadn't meant to say that out loud.

Dib turned to him suspiciously. "I don't know. I thought it had something to do with you."

Zim swallowed. That was exactly what he had thought about Dib and his own wound.

"I can assure you that Zim had nothing to do with it." Zim muttered, not really thinking about what he was saying. His mind felt a bit clouded.

Dib scoffed. "Okay, then tell me why I can't remember what happened yesterday?"

Zim looked up at the boy. Dib had a look of confusion on his face. Almost as if he hadn't meant to say that.

Zim cleared his drying throat. "Erm..."

"What I mean is; do you remember what happened yesterday?" Dib said slowly, seemingly choosing his words before talking.

"Of course." Zim lied.

Dib didn't seem convinced. "Okay then, what happened."

Zim sucked in a breath. "It's not all that important."

"Just TELL me!" Dib poked his forehead again.

Zim sat up, eyes narrowing. "STOP DOING THAT!"

Dib jerked back a bit at the alien's outburst.

There was a small scratching noise that came up through the silence.

Dib was now staring at Zim's hands in a sort of awed gaze.

The invader looked down as well. His claws had retracted through the black gloves dug through the skool desk.

Zim blinked. He quickly pulled on his hands to remove them from the desk. However, the hooked claws had dug themselves pretty deep into the wood.

He pulled harder and let out a frustrated growl. But the claws wouldn't remove themselves.

Meanwhile, Dib was trying not to burst out laughing. "N-need some help there?"

Zim took in a deep breath. He had been panting and now was a bit out of breath.

"Of course not hyooman!" Zim muttered trying for a third time but having no success.

"Try pushing your fingers forward instead of backwards." Dib covered his mouth in an attempt to keep from laughing.

Zim stuck out his lower lip. He pushed his claws forward, unhooking them from the grain. As soon as they were free, he placed his hands under the table and gave Dib with a nonchalant glance. "See, I told you I knew what I was doing."

"Yeah right." Dib giggled. "You would still be stuck if it wasn't fo-"

The young boy broke off, staring wide eyed at the desk.

"I knew it!" Dib said suddenly. "You did have something to do with this whole mess."

"What are you talking about? Zim already told your stupid head that-"

"No look!" Dib pointed to Zim's desk. There were six jagged claw marks.

"Those look exactly like the ones I saw this morning on the stair case." Dib muttered.

Zim closed his eyes. Something was wrong.

Wait.

Zim opened his eyes. What was that noise?

"-Doesn't even make sense..." Dib was still talking.

"Shhh..." Zim snapped, raising his antennae a bit under the scratchy wig.

"Don't shush me!"

"SHUSH! Dib-beast be silent!" Zim growled.

Dib crossed his hands over his chest but was silent.

"Do you hear that?" Zim snapped.

"Hear what?" Dib sounded annoyed.

"SHUSH!...That!" Zim stood up out of the desk.

"I don't hear anything."

Zim started to walk towards the door.

"Hey where are you going?" Dib said. "Mrs. Bitters told us to stay here."

Zim ignored the boy.

"Hey! Zim, this better not be one of your tricks!" Dib stood up as well.

The alien was now at the doorway. "You're telling me you can't hear that?"

"Hear what!" Dib was starting to get frustrated.

"It's like..." Zim broke off.

"LIKE WHAT!" Dib's voice rose.

"It just...stopped." Zim mused.

"Okay, it's official, you're insane." Dib muttered, going back to his desk.

Zim however did not move a muscle. He continued stare at the closed door in an awed hush.

"Wait! There it is again!" Zim suddenly screeched causing Dib to almost fall out of his seat in surprise.

"Would you quit that you dumb alien!" Dib restituted himself in the chair.

"I'm going to go see what it is." Zim stated, marching forward in a clipped military walk.

"You can't. Mrs. Bitters locked the door." Dib rolled his eyes.

"FOOL! No mere hyooman walls can contain the awful power of ZIM!" The invader screeched. "Observe!"

He slowly retracted his spider legs and pushed two through the key hole.

"Don't get stuck again." The young boy chuckled.

Zim stuck out his tongue. It was taking a little more effort than usual to maneuver his spider legs. Usually he used them more for gross motor skills. But they should be easily used with fine motor skills as well.

After about thirty seconds of pure concentration and a lot of gibbering from the Dib, the lock unbolted.

Zim retracted his spider legs, making sure to give Dib a smug look while doing so. "Told you."

Dib sat up. "Hey, Mrs. Bitters said not to go anywhere. I don't want to get another detention. So stop fooling around and come sit back down. I don't need another detention going on my permanent record."

Zim waved him off with a flick of his hand and opened the door. "Whatever Dib-Stink."

"I'm serious Zim." Dib warned. "You're going to get us in trouble!"

Zim scoffed and walked into the hallway.

"Hey wait for me!"


	4. Chapter 4

Hollow  
>Chapter 4<p>

a/n Here you go…the next chapter for the three people that read this :)

EDIT: okay, so FF was being mean and wasn't putting in my line breaks so that is why I'm re-posing this chapter

"Should we wake it?"

"I'm not sure. It could be hostile."

"It seemed unwilling to hurt Den though. It even attempted to dress some of his wounds. He seems friendly."

"We do not know that for certain...hush...it is waking up."

"What should we do?"

"Leave them. They can not cause any harm out here. The irken is weaponless. And of course humans are just bags of water and flesh. Put a tracker on the irken for safety."

...,

It felt like I had just run a marathon.

Literally my legs felt like jello.

And I hadn't even stood up on them yet.

I let out a long groan on pain, opening my eyes.

I seemed to be lying on my back. Bright stars flickered above in the seemingly endless night sky. It really was quite beautiful.

I almost instinctively identified Orion's belt and the milky way as I had studied them through my telescope while looking for aliens. On clear summer nights, it was easy to see the stars above.

A slight cool breeze rustled the cool grass around me. I shivered, pulling my long trench coat tighter round me.

I yawned, sitting up slightly. I felt exhausted.

I rubbed my eyes a bit under my glasses to wake myself up a but. My mind still felt hazy. Almost as if not fully awake.

Ow! My hand suddenly brushed against something wet on the side of my face, giving off a sharp pain.

I hissed, drawing my hand back.

Blood.

I froze for a second. Questions started popping into my head at an alarmingly fast rate.

Why was my head bleeding? How did I get cut? Why do my feet hurt?

Where exactly AM I?

I quickly looked around, observing the layout of the land. I seemed to be lying next to some country dirt road near the edge of a forest. Okay then...

"Hello?" My voice was rough in the silent air.

All of a sudden, a sort of groan rose up from beside me. I quickly jumped, not expecting the sound.

"Who's there?" My voice rising in fear.

The moon light lit up the world around me but that still didn't mean it wasn't dark. It was sorta giving me the creeps.

I looked around, my eyes settling in the lump in the grass a few feet away.

"Gah." It murmured. "What happened?"

The figure sat up. I froze, not daring to move.

"Hrn...irk, my head again?" The voice sounded annoyed. And very familiar...

"Zim?"

The figure looked up at me. His magenta eyes were glowing. I couldn't tell if they were just reflecting the moonlight

"Dib-worm?" Geesh could he never just say Dib?

Suddenly, in a flash of black and green, Zim was on top of me.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" I screeched, trying to push him off of me.

Zim snarled. His eyes were narrowed into dark, glowing slits. His jagged teeth glinted maliciously in the moonlight. I could feel those stupid claws start to dig into my collar.

"Why did you bring us here!" He growled. "What on great mother IRK is going on!"

"I DON'T KNOW! GET OFF ME!"

"NEVER!"

I dug the heel of my boot into his chest and quickly pushed him off of me.

He stumbled backwards, seemingly surprised that I had been able to over power him. Well, it wasn't that hard. He WAS pretty small.

Zim growled and looked about ready to attack me again. "YOU DARE-"

"Look, calm DOWN for five seconds and we can figure out what is going on!" I said slowly.

Zim jutted his bottom lip out in a sort of pouting look. He still didn't seem very convinced but his stance looked less threatened and he straitened up a bit.

I stood up and brushed off the dirt on my jacket. "Geesh. You really need to cut down on your sugar intake or something."

Zim gave me a pointed look that was kinda unsettling with his eyes closed. "There is nothing wrong with Zim's sugar intake. Perhaps their is something wrong with YOUR intake."

I just ignored him and started to take in my surroundings. "Where are we anyway?"

"How should I know. It's your planet, you find out where we are." Zim said and started to walk around with his antennae flicking around. I had just now noticed that he wasn't wearing his disguise. Of course he had to be out of disguise when no one was here to witness it.

I scoffed. "We're in the middle of no where. I have no clue where we are."

Zim looked at me a little funny. "You do not know you're own planet?"

"What? Of course I know my planet...I just don't know, you know, all of it. It's too big to memorize."

Zim just rolled his eyes. "And you wonder why your species is inferior."

I laughed. "Come on, you don't expect me to believe that you know your WHOLE planet by memory."

"Like the back of my hand. All Irkens are supposed to memorize it at late smeethood." Zim said absentmindedly. He had taken off his pak a few seconds ago and was now rummaging through it. He look a bit frustrated.

"Oh wait! I could use the GPS in my cell phone!" I quickly dug deep into my trench coat pockets. "Hmm...let's see. A flash drive, pencil, um...small notebook, ham (why do I have ham in my pocket?), Uh...battery. No..."

After looking in every pocket in my trench coat and pants, I was still unable to find my phone. "Darn, I must've left it in my locker or something." I muttered.

Zim growled, putting his pak back on. "Gah, someone took all my weapons. And they disabled my communicator." He grumbled something inaudible and most likely in another language. "Someone must've taken them out. But it had to be someone who knew an irken system because no inferior living being knows how to access it..." He was talking more to himself at this point.

"So...you think we were attacked?" I asked, pulling my trench coat a bit closer. Man was it cold.

"Most likely. It would explain the cuts on both of our heads. And it is beyond question that we came here willingly. I mean, why on irk would I spend time with the likes of you?". He pointed at me accusingly.

I pushed his finger out of my face. "But that still doesn't explain why we are out here. I mean...we were at skool. You were following that noise. And...that's all I can remember. It's all blurry afterwards." I held my head. It had started to hurt a bit. "Do you remember anything besides that?"

Zim shook his head. "Nah nothing."

"Maybe it was ghosts!" I smiled excitedly. I had always wanted to be possessed by a ghost.

"Silly Dib-Beast, Ghosts don't exists." Zim chuckled.

"Yes they do!"

"No they don't. Get that stupid notion out of your head."

"Aliens don't exist either." I stuck out my tongue as to prove my point.

"I think whoever attacked you also knocked out a few brain cells." Zim retorted.

"Whatever Zim. Would you call your stupid robot to come get us now or something. I'm getting cold." I said, rubbing my arms together.

"Are you deaf as well as blind?" Zim said rather loudly. "My communicator has been sabotaged. I can't call anyone."

"So we're basically stuck out here?" I sighed. "Great, just great."

"I fail to see how this is great hyooman." Zim said, failing to pick up on the sarcasm. I just ignored him again.

"Well...er...maybe if we follow this street, we can find some street signs or at least a town or something." I suggested, looking down the dark road.

"It says we're on Maaaaple St." Zim said suddenly. He was also squinting down the road. His eyes seemed to have increased in their glowing.

"What? Where do you see that?" I tried to look where he was looking. All I could see was the dark blurred scenery.

Zim started up his trade mark laugh. "Inferior hyooman eyes. There is a sign a few triclicks down."

Triclicks? Stupid alien language. Why couldn't he learn English...

"Is there another sign under it? I know where Maple St. is, but it is a pretty long road." I asked.

"Uh...I can't read it from this angle." Zim squinted harder.

"Well, no point in just standing here then. Let's get walking before I freeze to death." I said, starting to walk down the road.

"Wait a minuet, who said I was going with you?" Zim huffed.

"Because I'm the only one who knows how to get home. If you want to just wander aimlessly around the woods for days, be my guest. But I am going this way." I retorted.

There was a moment's pause. Then came the slight patter of footsteps signaling that Zim was indeed following behind.

I held in a sigh of relief. It wasn't that I wanted to spend time with the alien. No, I would have paid money for him to just leave me alone. But in the current situation, I guess it was best if he tagged along. I had a feeling whoever had dragged us out here was still lurking around. Zim always bragged about how he was superior in fighting. I didn't believe it for a second, but he would make good bait if someone tried to jump us.

"You know, you're plans would help you more if you didn't say them out loud." Zim hissed. "And I have no intention of being bait."

Oh…had I said that out loud? Woops.

"And I see you doubt my military skillsss." The alien continued. "Be assured that Zim has been trained to be an elite militant and could kill you instantly."

I scoffed. "Sure Zim, whatever you say."

We continued to walk in silence. The area started to get a bit more wooded and tall trees towered above us, casting creepy shadows on the pavement.

I was now walking behind Zim, following his glowing eyes. The trees had blocked out the moonlight from the sky and left me virtually blind. It was reeaaally starting to freak me out.

"How far was this sign?" I asked, my voice quavering a bit.

"Not too far…" Zim said quietly. His antennae were almost positioned forward.

Suddenly he stopped and I almost ran into him. His antennae had risen a bit.

"I hear something…" He whispered.

"Oh God not this again." I groaned. "If you're trying to trick me or something, it's not going to work."

Zim was silent for a moment. After a few seconds of us standing there in the dark like morons, the invader shook his head and continued walking. "Must've been one of your filthy earth creatures." He muttered.

After a few more minutes of walking, we finally reached the cross road. Or so Zim said…I still couldn't see much of anything.

"What does the sign say?" I asked, rubbing my arms together.

"Petersburg R D." Zim sneered. "That's a stupid name."

My jaw dropped open in shock and disappointment. "OH COME ON! Ptersburg is like 20 miles away from home!"

"And that is…" Zim asked, confused.

"Pretty dang far! You live less than a mile away from me!"

"Oh." The alien said. "Well, I guess we should get walking."

My muscles ached with protest. I didn't know if I could walk 20 miles. My feet had been killing me ever since I had woken up.

"How about we set up camp for the night. Just until I am able to see again." I said, going to sit down on the grass by the side of the road.

"Why would we set up camp?" Zim retorted. "It would be better to keep walking."

"My feet _hurt_." I whined.

"Well suck it up. Let's keep walking." Zim insisted, looking a bit jumpy.

"I'm the only one who knows how to get home and I say that we shall wait until morning." I crossed my arms and sat down on the cool grass.

Zim glared at me, sending shivers up my arm.

Finally he scoffed and sat down next to me. "If I didn't need you Dib-stink, I would definitely abandon you here."

"Whatever Spaceboy."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

A/N: Hey guys! I wanted to thank you so much for the reviews! They really help me be inspired to keep this going! To be honest, this story is more of a test to see if I can avoid my usual style of writing and try something new. **By the way**, my computer has been acting funny and is not letting me put in my normal page break (that's why there wasn't one in the last chapter) so even though I hate when authors write PAGE BREAK…I am forced to do so now. So bear with me. Also, I'm sorry this took so long…school is hard as you know. Anyways, enjoy.

Oh and also, there is a bit of violence at the end. But that's why it was rated T.

-PAGE BREAK-

"Oh no..."

"What is it this time?"

"The ship's repairs may take slightly more time than originally thought."

"What! We don't have much time left as it is! Den is getting worse!"

"Maybe we should have let the human help Den more...I mean, he was doing a good job healing Den."

"And the irken might also be able to fix our ship."

"You think a coldblooded irken would help fix our ship!"

"No…but we could force it to work."

"Agreed. So do you want to bring them back?"

"Yes. But one of us should stay here. Our first priority is to fix the ship."

"What? How are you going to possess both of them at the same time?"

"Who said anything about possessing _them_?"

-PAGE BREAK-

"I liked it better when it was dark." Zim growled. He dragged his foot along the surface of the pavement, hitting the rock he had been kicking forward for the last ten minutes or so.

"You said that five times now." Dib, who was a few feet ahead of him, noted.

"Well, you didn't respond so I wasn't sure you heard." Zim walked closer to his rock and kicked it again. "If Zim didn't require your navigational skills, Zim would just leave you here to rot."

"Whatever Zim." Dib muttered. It was much too early for the alien's normal antics. Dib wasn't much of a morning person and the fact that Zim had basically been poking him awake every thirty minutes or so last night hadn't helped his attitude.

Stupid insomniac alien.

"How far away are we now?" Zim asked, kicking his rock in a straight line, almost hitting the back of Dib's heal.

Dib sidestepped in order to not be hit and glared back at the young invader. Zim just scowled, turning his head away innocently.

"I told you, it might take a few hours." Dib continued on. "You know, I read somewhere that people walk about 3.5 miles per hour…meaning it should take about 4 to 6 hours to get home."

"Oh, that's why your head is so big." Zim mused.

"How's that?"

"It is full of completely useless information. And empty space." Zim stressed the last sentence, kicking his rock further for a dramatic effect in his sentence.

Dib rolled his eyes and decided to let that one slide without thinking up some stupid comeback. He could have easily said 'your mom has an empty head' but Zim didn't have real parents. And he was still pretty flipping tired.

Zim let out a long sigh and kicked his rock to the side of the road, apparently loosing interest in his little game.

"Are you sure we are going the right way?" Zim asked.

"Positive. These woods eventually lead out close to the skool grounds. Near the park." Dib confirmed.

"Good. The faster we get there the less time I have to spend with y-" Suddenly Zim broke off. His walking came to an immediate halt.

"Well come on then. If you hate being with me so much, it's best we keep moving." Dib growled, getting farther and farther away from the young invader.

Zim didn't budge. His antennae were angled almost perpendicular to his head. His eyes widened, glancing around nervously at the wooded area.

Dib, finally realizing his enemy was not following, stopped and turned around. "What are you doing this time?"

Zim didn't answer.

There was a rustle from one of the bushes on the left side of the road. Both boys jumped at the sudden noise.

Dib slowly retraced his footsteps, trying hard not to move the gravel underneath his boots.

The young boy gave Zim a 'what on earth was that?' glance.

The young alien barely moved; rolling one shoulder in a semi-shrug.

The rustling grew louder and a low growl emitted from the brush. The growl sent shivers up Dib's spine. He could feel his heart rate start to accelerate. His palms began to grow sweaty as the simple fight or flight instinct prepared to unleash itself at any given moment.

Zim also looked about ready to pounce or something of that nature.

Two beady red eyes peered out between the leaves. The boys tensed.

And out of the bushes, stepped a...bunny rabbit?

A white, furry rabbit peered cautiously from the bushes. Its pick nose flickered ever so slightly. He looked up at the two boys for a second, turned, and scurried away.

"...BWAHAHAHA!" Zim almost doubled over on himself as he broke out laughing.

Dib gave a nervous chuckle as well. He swallowed the lump that had formed in his throat and willed his heartbeat to slow down.

"YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THE LOOK ON YOUR FACE!" Zim was still laughing hysterically. "OH NO DIB! WATCH OUT! DONT WANT THE SCARY RABBIT TO COME EAT YOU!"

Dib huffed, crossing his arms over his chest. He felt his face redden a bit. "Yeah...well, you were just as scared as I am."

The young alien suddenly stopped his laughing at this comment. Turning to the boy with much enthusiasm, he pronounced. "LIES! Zim was not scared! He was merely...Er...preparing for a fight! Yes! A fight!"

"Was not!" Dib reported, poking a finger accusingly at the young invader. "You were totally scarred!"

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"Was not!"

"ARGH! This argument is pointless!" Zim screeched and stormed past the paranormal investigator.

Dib, a little taken aback at Zim's sudden mood change, followed behind slowly.

Suddenly, Zim screeched to a halt, antennae flailing wildly. He lurched his body around to face Dib, eyes widening in what seemed to be fear.

"Dib Beast!" He yelled. "Run!"

Dib scoffed. "Very funny Zim."

"No! You don't understand!" The young alien screeched.

All of a sudden, a big blurred ball of fur sprang out of the bushes. With a loud growl and a couple of angry yelps from Zim, the blurred fur quickly swept Zim up and they both tumbled into the bushes on the other side of the woods.

"WHAT THE HELL!" Dib screamed. "ZIM!"

The young boy teared after them through the bushes.

Meanwhile, Zim was doing his best to hang onto whatever had just hit him. They were quickly rolling down the hill side. It was a miracle they hadn't hit anything yet.

Zim yelped in pain as his side hit the ground; the impact breaking his grip on his attacker. He was flung sideways, away from the creature.

However, this didn't help his speed of depression. He was still rolling unceremoniously down the side of the wooded him.

Zim grabbed out, trying to find some sort of branch or root…anything that would stop the world from spinning. But even retracting his claws didn't seem to help any. He was tumbling just too fast.

He felt the ground began to slop even more. He allowed himself to cry out in surprise. This was getting rather ridiculous. Grass, sky, grass, sky, grass, sky.

His Squeedlyspooch began to feel a bit queasy. Okay, time to stop this.

Zim mentally crossed his fingers, hoping that his spider legs had been left in tack. They should have been perfectly fine. There was virtually no way for them to have been removed. They were stored on the outer parts of his pak; protected by a hard layer of steel. The only way they could be removed is if the irken had retracted them and they had been cut off.

Zim issued the small command to his pak. He heard the soothing whir of his spider legs activating, slinking slowly out of his back. He quickly jutted two out into the earth. The spider legs caught on the dirt and he came to an immediate halt.

The young invader was now lying on his back, breathing heavily. He sighed in relief.

However, he did not get much of a break. He heard a loud growl erupt through the air. His instincts screamed at him to move to the left.

Zim quickly dodged. A large clawed paw met the ground where he once was. Hot breath, smelling of death and decay, engulfed his antennae. He heard the snap of teeth close to his left stalk.

Another screech from the attacker. Zim quickly hopped up onto his spider legs, moving quickly to avoid the multitude of attacks. The young alien's eyes narrowed, instinct and training taking over. His mind suddenly flashed back to all those days spent during his smeethood, doing hand to hand combat. Due to his size, he hadn't been able to inflict much pain to the others; however he had gotten very good at dodging.

He felt a growl rise up from his own throat. Slicking back his antennae to avoid them being bitten off by whatever creature was attacking, Zim dodged the furry of fur coming at him.

He was barely aware of the fact that Dib was screaming at him from the side.

Suddenly, two dark green eyes flashed into his vision. He quickly stumbled backwards as the creature's flashing white teeth closed in front of his face. The snap issuing from the jaws was a bit unnerving. If he had a nose, it would have been bitten clean off his face.

Zim willed his spider legs to move quickly, leaving less of an opportunity for his attacker to pin him down. However, the ground was slippery and uneven. He felt his mechanical legs began to falter, breaking his concentration. His instincts quickly leaving him; replaced with the struggle to keep his spiderlegs up right. This left him defenseless for a mere second or so. Unfortunately, this was enough time for the attacker to find an opening.

Zim screamed in pain as he felt the flesh on the back of his leg being slowly torn. The claws of his attacker had cut right through his pants and boots and were now ripping away at his skin.

Zim's concentration disappeared and he felt his spider legs retract. The ground rushed up to meet his head.

The alien let out a pitiful howl. He felt a great pressure on his chest and howled even more when claws started digging into his spooch.

"ZIM!" He heard the hyooman cry out in terror.

He felt the hot breath on his cheek now. He tried to get a good look at whatever was attacking him, but his vision was blurred. He couldn't tell if it was tears that stained his vision, or the fact that he probably had a concussion due to his fall.

"_It's over irken scum" _The creature hissed in another language.

Wait. Why was a smelly earth creature talking in…

Zim's eyes widened. It all made sense now. The scar, the memory loss, the scratches!

The creature raised its paw up high, claws glinting maliciously in the sunlight. Zim struggled, trying to concentrate. He needed to get one of his spider legs free.

Willing the rest of his strength into the bottom left spider leg, Zim quickly tried to activate it. His pak let out a whir of protest. Zim willed it again.

The creature's paw was coming down fast.

Zim let out a cry, feeling the spider leg come out at last. He thrust it up into the air.

He heard a sickening screech ring through his antennae. The creature's weight falling onto his spider leg.

He could feel warm blood drip down the metallic leg onto this chest. He cautiously looked up.

The creature's eyes light up an eerie blue before fading black. The creature's hot heavy fur fell limp onto his body.

Zim quickly flicked the body off of his leg near the side of him. His breath racked in his antennae.

"Zim?" He felt a warm hand on his arm. With more effort than it should have taken, Zim managed to focus his vision long enough to make out Dib's face. He groaned and pushed Dib's hand off of his own arm.

"What the…what was that?" Zim's voice sounded strange, almost tired.

"It was a cougar-which is strange because you don't see many of them here today…they tend to mostly hide away from humans." The paranormal investigator pronounced. "Erm…are you okay? Your leg is bleeding."

Zim closed his eyes. "Yeah, I'll live."

"You sure?"

Zim nodded, he felt his pak whir with the effort to rapidly close the leg wound. "it's just a small cut...should be fine in, a few hours."

The invader sat up, ignoring the momentary disorientation it brought. He glared down at the creature bleeding beside him. He had managed to pierce the creatures…heart? Yeahm that seemed right…that's what hyoomas called it at least. The creature was a tan colored feline species. It seemed about the size of a big dog.

Dib started talking about the cougar, saying that it was probably young and hungry. Zim figured that Dib was probably just rambling in order to burn nervous energy or he might have still been in a bit of shock. The irken ignored him, now moving on to his own wounds.

Zim looked down at his own shirt which was now covered in a mixture of green and red blood. His shirt had been ripped but the claws had not pierced his skin. Thank irk for that. Now onto the bad part…

Zim glanced down at his leg, feeling his spooch skip a beat. It looked bad because it was bleeding, but it wasn't very deep at all. It would heal fairly easy. Even in these conditions. However, that didn't mean it didn't hurt like a…

"Hey Zim! Are you even paying attention to me?" Dib snapped his fingers in front of the alien.

Zim blinked. "Wha? Oh Dib. Right."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Dib asked.

"Yeah yeah,, fine." Zim put a hand up to his head. Yep, probably had a concussion. But of course he'd take a wounded head instead of a wounded pak any day.

"We should get moving, in case there are more of them." Dib continued, glancing around nervously. He was now glad he had decided to keep Zim with him. "Can you walk?"

"Huh? Oh yeah." Zim said wearily. "But I think we have bigger problems than another cougar."

"What do you mean?" Dib asked. "Do you think there are bears or something!" His voice rose a bit.

"No no, that carger, or whatever you called it, wasn't attacking us on purpose….

…It was possessed." 


	6. Chapter 6

Hollow  
>Chapter 6<p>

A/N: sorry for the long wait! Thanks for being patient! And thanks so so much for the awesome reviews! You guys rock!

-page break-

"What do you mean 'it was possessed'". Dib seemed to have broken out of his initial shock from the sudden attack. He was now sitting down in the grass next to Zim, trying to ignore the dead shell of the cougar bleeding out next to them.

Zim was attending to his wounds as well as making sure those mechanical legs were still working properly.

"It spoke in an alien language. Zim may not be an expert on earthen wildlife, but I'm fairly sure that cougars don't speak." Zim said absentmindedly. Darn, the tip of one of the legs had been broken off when he rammed it into the ground.

"Wait, alien language? Does that mean alien for you or alien for me?" Dib asked, bringing his legs up to his chest.

"Both. It was speaking Meekrobian." Zim hissed the name like it was a filthy disease.

"What is a Meekrobian?"

"There not called Meekrobian Dib-stink. That would be stupid. They are known as the Meekrob. Meekrobian is their language. Duh." Zim scoffed as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "You know, like I speak irken and you speak earthen."

"What? I speak engl-never mind. What are the meekrob?"

"Well, they're an energy being that has the ability to possess other beings by going into their head and messing with their brain meats." Zim explained. "This explains the cuts on both of our heads. Sometimes a less experienced Meekrob will leave a clean cut where they entered into the mind."

"Ew gross! So you're saying an alien was in my head!" Dib grabbed his head with a worried expression.

"Your head is big enough to fit TWO aliens." Zim smirked.

"MY HEAD'S NOT BIG!"

"Anyways, I'm guessing I put up a fight with the meekrob, because as we both know, Zim is an excellent fighter. This explains the scratches at my base." Zim muttered.

"So what do these meekrob want with us?"

"Well. I haven't figured that part out yet." Zim scowled and sheathed his spider legs.

"Okay, then why are we here?"

"Haven't figured that out either."

"What happened yesterday?"

"Nu uh..."

"Oh, then what do you know!" Dib's voiced raised a volume.

Zim shrugged. "Well pretty much that we are facing Meekrobs and they might have possessed us and made us come out here. For what purpose, I am not sure."

Dib gave him a blank stare. "That's it?"

"WELL HOW ABOUT YOU FIGURE IT OUT YOURSELF!" Zim growled.

Dib just shook his head and looked up into the sky. "Well, do you think they'll come attack us again?"

"No, they can only possess one being at a time. Most likely it'll look for another dangerous creature to possess and kill us." Zim sighed. "But one can never tell with the Meekrob. They are a tricky bunch. They certainly have had experience dealing with Irkens before." He pointed to his pak. "They are the only inferior beings I have met that can almost completely disarm an irken."

Dib bit his lip, taking everything in. So they still didn't know the complete story about the Meekrobs. One thing was for sure; if they were going to survive, they would have to...work together.

Ugh, Dib felt like gagging just at the thought.

"I agree hyooman. As revolting as teamwork sounds, it is better than death. Or at least I hope it is." Zim suddenly said, breaking Dib out of his small trance. Whoops, had he accidentally been talking out load again?

"We need to get moving." Zim said, breaking Dib out of his thoughts.

Dib eyed Zim's leg, trying to look casual about it. More nonchalant than worried. "Are you sure?"

Zim nodded. "The meekrob won't give up that easily. If we don't move we could be attacked again." The young alien got onto his knees. He had taken his black boot off a while ago. Dib stared at the clawed foot with interest. It had three toes, each protruding a sharp claw that looked almost like a flatter version of his hands. The bottom also looked rough as if it were a dog's or cat's paw.

Zim shakily got to his feet. His face distorted for a second, knotting in pain. Then, in a flash, all emotion was gone. The alien put on a 'Im bored face' and started to walk.

Dib grimaced. That HAD to be painful.

...Wait. Why should he care?

Dib shook his head. He didn't care! Zim was the enemy. Who cares if Zim was suffering! That was good right? Right! Besides, the meekrob sounded an awful lot like those floating shoes that Zim had made him see after that whole muffin incident. And they hadn't seemed so bad. Maybe the Meekrob were good! Maybe Dib hadn't been attacked because the meekrob had been intent on killing Zim! Wouldn't getting rid of Zim be a good thing? Should he be helping the Meekrob?

"Come on hyooman, I don't have all day." Zim hissed, almost crawling back up the steel incline of the hill.

Dib sighed, following after slowly. Well, if the meekrob did come again...maybe he'd volunteer to help take down Zim. For now, he'd play along. Let Zim hurt himself by walking on his injured foot. Yeah!

Dib bit his lip, not sure if he completely believed the thoughts coming from his head.

-Page Break-

After an hour, Zim's leg had seemed less swollen and had started in heal. He looked less pained to put pressure on it now. They had been waking down the hard road for a while now.

Dib had followed closely behind Zim, watching the alien practically limp. Now it seemed as if he was feeling better now as he walked with that clipped military strut of his.

Dib couldn't tell whether he himself was relieved...or disappointed.

During the course of their walk, Dib had acquired a small headache. He was sure that it was from dehydration. He hadn't had a sip of water since yesterday. He hoped they would reach civilization soon. He liked being outside and all, but he missed being in front of his computer. Yeah, pitiful right?

Dib's mind wandered back to that email that Dark Bootie had sent. The injured alien had to be one of the meekrob or something...there was no way he would help Zim to heal. Or maybe he had been trying to turn Zim in? Gah!

"Why can't I remember." Dib hissed silently to himself.

Zim either appeared not to hear, or didn't care.

Suddenly, the wind kicked up around the two boys. The new leaves of spring rustled around them playfully. Dib breathed in the earthy scent. Okay, maybe outside wasn't TOO bad. The woods were actually very peaceful.

Zim, however, had his antennae up and was now looking towards the sky. He bit his lips in a sort of nervous gesture.

"We need to get moving faster." He growled and trudged onwards.

"What's the rush?". Dib found himself saying. "Is the invaded afraid of a few meekrob?"

"No, stupid hyooman." Zim hissed angrilly. "But I have no intention on getting rained on."

Rained on? Dib looked at the sky. It was a bright clear day. The sun was warmly shining. There was not even any clouds.

"You're crazy." Dib scoffed.

Zim didn't answer. He had been rather quiet after the whole cougar attack.

Questions started bubbling up inside his head. Dib squeezed his lips shut, but words seemed to force their way out of his mouth. "So, is your leg feeling better?"

Zim shrugged, but made no other attempt to carry on the conversation.

"Do you think you could take on another attack if it comes?" Dib had no control over what he was saying. It just seemed to flow out.

"Of course I could stupid. Unlike your weak human form, Zim has a superior healing system. I believe the phrase you earthlings say is 'I can take anything that you can fish out'."

"It's dish..." Dib chuckled.

"Whatever. The point is that I have healed whereas you have not." Zim stated.

Wait...what?

"What do you mean I haven't-" Dib's voiced cracked. He tried to talk, but no sound was coming out.

Dib suddenly felt a burning on the side of his head.

A fine trail of blood ran down his cheek from the previous wound.

Oh no.

"Zim!" He tried to scream out, but his mouth wasn't moving. His body just kept on walking normally. He was unable to do anything.

_"Hush child. Don't give me away."_ A low hissing voice rang through his head.

'Who are you!' Dib thought, even though he knew the answer.

_"That is of no importance to you. All you need to know is that we are working towards a similar goal."_ The meekrob's voice seemed to echo.

'GET OUT OF MY HEAD!' Dib screeched wordlessly.

_"Hush child, I will do you no harm. I only need you to get to the irken. If you cooperate, I will let you go unscathed."  
><em>  
>'No! Get out!' Dib tried to grab onto his head, but his hands wouldn't move. He felt another warm sticky trail of blood run down his cheek as the burning increased.<p>

_"Don't try anything boy! You'll ruin everything! I can do things to your head! Things you can't even imagine!"_

Dib swallowed. Or at least, he would have if he could have. 'What do you want with me?'

_"It's not what I want with you boy, it is what I want with the irken! You see, the irkens are our mortal enemies. After we make him fix our ship, we'll destroy him. Thus, destroying another stupid pawn of the irken military. And, as a bonus, it leaves your planet from being invaded by Irkens. So I suggest you shut up and cooperate."_ The meekrob threatened.

Dib was mortified. He didn't know why, but he couldn't let the meekrob hurt Zim! The alien was HIS property! He had found Zim fair and square! How dare this meekrob try to kill HIS discovery!

"Z-Zim..." He managed to rasp out. Suddenly, the pain in his head was overwhelming. He felt himself fall to his knees.

Zim screeched to a halt and turned. He took one look at Dib's head and nodded the young paranormal investigator. A spark of understanding flickered in his magenta eyes. Zim's spider legs retracted.

_**"Meekrobian scum."**_ Zim hissed in what seemed like another language. "I know you can understand me. So talk! What do you want with me!"

_**"Foolish irken."**_ The Meekrobian chuckled in the same language, he was using Dib's mouth to talk through. The language the meekrob was using felt weird on his tounge. "You know exactly what I want with you."

Zim raised his spider leg up, the metal gleaming in the sunlight.

Dib's eyes went wide. "Z-Zim! Wait! Wha-What are...you doing!" He managed to say.

"Getting rid of this stupid threat once and for all!" Zim said in english, his eyes narrowing into slits and his antennae slicked back.

"_No!"_ The meekrob screeched, also in English. _"You'll kill the boy as well!"_

Zim scoffed. "Does it look like I care?"

_"DON'T DO IT DEFECT!"_ The meekrob screeched.

Zim raised his spider leg up further. The blade looked sharper from this angle.

Dib felt his stomach drop. "D-don't you d...dare Zim!"

Zim just gave him a toothy smile; his face darkening a bit.

"You don't know how long I've wanted to do this Dib."

Zim gave out a loud snarl and thrust the blade down towards the young boy's head.

Dib found himself screaming. He covered his eyes and awaited the pain to come.

And he waited.

And waited.

Was he dead yet?

Dib peered through his fingers and met two magenta orbs staring back at him.

"Dib? Are you still in there?" Zim's voice rang out.

Dib felt a bit dizzy. He reached towards the side of his head and felt blood oozing through his fingers.

"You-you...you asshole!" Dib finally found his voice, getting to his feet rather quickly. The motion made his vision swim and he practically fell back onto his knees. "You-you!"

"Saved our lives. Yeah, you're welcome." Zim scoffed. "Geesh, I get no appreciation around here."

"YOU STABBED ME IN THE HEAD!" Dib screamed hoarsely.

Zim pretended to look hurt by this. "Zim dis no such thing! Zim only pretended to stab you. The meekrob left so fast that he ripped a whole through your filthy gargantuan head. The coward."

Dib fumbled for words. "So...he's gone?"

"Eeyup." Zim nodded and started one of his evil laughs. "Mwahahahahahahahaha! Victory!"

"Gah! Keep your voice down! My head hurts." Dib scowled, rubbing his temples.

"You can thank Zim for his geniusness later." Zim said.

"Whatever." Dib grimaced and looked around again. "You're sure he's gone?"

"Yes Dib-Stink." Zim rolled his eyes. "I saw it myself. He left your big head and took off into the woods. Now, let's seriously get moving before that inferior meekrob finds out that I haven't killed you yet. Come on, no time to waste lounging about! Move hyooman!"

Zim turned on his heels, and started off again. The back of his leg had completely healed by the looks of it. Lucky duck.

Dib forced himself to his feet and trudged slowly behind the alien.

They still had a long way to go before they reached the safety and comfort of their own houses.


	7. Chapter 7

Hollow  
>Chapter 7<br>a/n: Thanks for being so patient! This chapter took longer than expected…enjoy!

Zim flattened his antennae at the sound of the distant thunder.

He growled out a small curse. He had hoped the approaching storm would have waited until he got home. But their run ins with the meekrob had deterred every hope of beating the storm.

Zim took another glance at the sky, silently cursing it. Had he remembered to apply paste? He couldn't remember the last time he had applied it. It had been a relatively dry season for what the earthings call 'spring'. Ugh...he had some in his Pak before the meekrob had stollen it. Stupid little-

Dib was talking. The alien wasn't listening. He didn't care what the boy had to say. Not that he would ever admit it, but he was getting very hungry and a bit tired. All the rapid healing and spider leg usage had made his Pak energy run low. He could have killed for a nice tender sandwich right now.

Another sound of thunder in the distance made Zim sigh. The sandwich would have to wait.

"-And then the first thing that I do when I get home is eat a whole dang bloaty's pizza. Even though Gaz will hate me and I hate their pizza...but whatever, I'm that hungry you know-" Dib seemed to still think they were actually having a conversation. Bah! He didn't want to look at the hyooman let alone talk to it.

Zim stopped walking. "We are going to find shelter for the night." He reported cutting Dib off of his tangent.

"What?" Dib jerked to a stop. "Why?"

Zim bit his lip. "Eh, because-because..."

Dib folded his arms across his chest. "We're more than halfway home. Unless you can come up with an actual reason to not continue, we are walking."

"-It's going to storm okay." Zim blurted out rather harshly.

Dib frowned and looked up at the sunny sky. "Nice try space boy...what is really going on?"

Zim winced at the sound of the distant thunder ringing in his antennae. "I'm serious Dib-Worm. Can't you hear it?"

"Hear what? Oh God, you better not be possessed by a freaking meekrob."

"What? No! Just listen!" Zim snarled. "We need to find a place where the rain won't get through"

"You're insane."

That does it. "Coming from the boy who was taken to the crazy house for boys for becoming a raving lunatic!" Zim's voice rose dramatically.

Dib's eyes narrowed. "You know as well as I do that I was seeing nightmare visions! I wasn't insane!"

"Oh, I'm sure that's what you told your parental unit as well!" Zim's antennae flattened against his head.

"Well-well!" Dib racked his mind for a comeback. "You're stupid!"

Zim just flicked an antenna, unwilling to give another insult. "Look, the storm is still at least ten minutes away. You apparently have crappy hearing or something if you can't hear the thunder! So Zim would like to find some stupid shelter before Zim burns to a crisp!"

The wind suddenly picked up through the air, blowing the leaves around them. Dib felt cold air on his neck, causing him to shiver. It was as if the air had suddenly shifted.

Dib groaned. "Fine. But we can't go too far from the road. I don't want to get lost."

"Don't tell me what to do." Zim growled, pushing past the young boy into the dense forest. He heard Dib sigh and walk after him. Zim just decided to ignore the human again. He couldn't wait until this whole excursion was over and he could go back to destroying the earth. He didn't need this kind of interruption.

The invader slowed as the forest floor began to slope downwards. That was when he heard it…the fait hiss of water on rocks. Zim had seen a few caves in his life, or at least enough to know that sometimes the rock could be eaten away by water. He had actually done some experimentation after the whole water balloon fight incident. He was going to erode the earth, but he felt like that was going to take too long so the project was forgotten.

Zim raised his antennae to get a better understanding of where the water was coming from, but soon lowered them after getting a huge whiff of the potent sent of dirt and worms. Or was that just Dib?

Whatever it was, it smelled nasty. So Zim flattened his antennae and guessed at which way the water was coming from. All the time, Dib was trying to strike up another conversation and being completely ignored.

Another crash of thunder made Zim pick up the pace. He didn't want to look to desperate, especially in front a human. But, it was going to come to that if he couldn't find the freaking- Oh…

Zim almost tripped as the ground suddenly opened up into a small cliff. At the bottom of the cliff, about 12 feet or so down, was a river.

"Watch your step." The human said smugly.

Zim sent a curse at him in irken and glanced around the stream.

"There." Dib said suddenly, pointing over to the left.

Zim followed Dib's line of sight and saw a decent sized cave near the side of a tiny waterfall.

"That'll work." Zim said. Now how would they get down there?

Zim retracted his spider legs and dug the two non-broken ones into the hard ground. He then swung himself off the cliff, hoping to the control brains that the tips wouldn't break off.

The legs held strong, leaving Zim hanging over the side of the small cliff.

"Wait! What about me?" Dib asked as Zim started to dig his bottom legs into the face of the ledge.

"That's a good question. I don't care!" Zim smiled up at him with his own smug smirk.

Dib pouted and waved him off.

Zim stuck his tongue out in concentration. Once his legs were secured on the bottom, he took the top ones out of the dirt. Then he slowly lowered those legs and dug them into the face of the cliff below his other set. He then repeated this process until he was at the mouth of the cave.

Zim placed his mechanical legs on the floor of the cave, listening to the sound of scrapping metal on rock. The cave was bigger on the inside than it appeared on the outside. It was probably big enough that it could fit the voot cruiser in snugly.

"Hey! Zim! I got an idea of how I can get down there!" Dib said, leaning over the top of the cliff.

"Hmm. How's that?" Zim sheathed his spider legs and peered out of the cave at the young boy.

"CANNON BALL!" Dib screamed, backing back up into the woods.

Zim backed up quickly Ito the cave. "WHAT WHERE! ARE WE UNDER ATTACK!"

Dib ran off the side of the ledge. In mid air, he hugged his legs to his chest. Then he splashed into the river below, sending a splash of water toward's Zim's direction. Zim yelped and jumped backed up to avoid the spray.

Dib's head popped out of the river water, his glasses were lopsided and he had a huge grin on his face. "See. Easy."

Zim flicked a drop of water off of his sleeve. "Stupid Dib-Smell! You could have killed me!"

"Whatever Zim." Dib shifted his position to floating on his back.

Just then, a crash of thunder sounded through the air, causing both of the boys to jump.

Dib scurried out of the water, afraid he might be electrocuted, and sat by Zim in the cave.

"Keep your smelly wet body away from Zim." The invader hissed, moving towards the back of the cave as the water from Dib's clothes threatened to run towards him.

"Whimp." Dib chuckled.

The wind outside started to pick up and a cold breeze blew into the cave. A few minuets later, the clouds were visible and the rain began to fall.

There were a few leaves and twigs that had blown into the cave so Dib decided to attempt making a fire. Now that the temperature had dropped and Dib still had wet clothes on from jumping in water, he was getting rather cold.

Zim watched the human scramble around, looking for sticks in the dark. The clouds had darkened the outside world.

"Bet you're regretting jumping in that acid pit now huh Dib." Zim smirked.

"Shut up Space Boy." Dib said through chattering teeth. He grabbed all the branches and plant vines he could find in the cave and piled it all into the center.

Dib sat back, admiring his work. It was a decent sized fire. And the wood was dry so it would be relatively easy to light.

"Okay, now light it up Zim." Dib looked up at the alien.

Zim was sitting with his pak resting on the wall of the cave. His head was hung and eyes were dully watching the rain outside. "What do I look like, a blow torch?"

"Don't you have some weird alien lighter that you can light this fire with?" Dib asked, sitting back onto his knees.

"I am not-oh what do you call them? A knife from Sweden." Zim stated, crossing his legs.

"Do you mean a Swiss army knife?"

"Yes."

"But those don't even have lighters." Dib laughed.

"Whatever." Zim closed his eyes. "I'm not going to act as your source of fuel so look for something else to warm your big head."

Dib sighed and sat back, giving his little pile of sticks a kick with his foot. "Well that was a complete waste of time."

"Agreed."

"Shut up Zim." Dib said, sitting back against the wall of the cave. His clothes were pretty much dried anyway. Now he was just left cold.

The thunder seemed to grow dimmer now, though the rain continue to fall. It was very soothing and soon Dib found himself struggling to keep his eyes open.

Although it was probably only eight oclock at night the dark clouds made it seem later than it already was. So Dib decided to just give up on his struggle and given into sleep. Zim didn't sleep anyways, so he could keep watch while Dib slept.

When Dib opened his eyes again, the rain had slowed to a slow drizzle.

Dib sat up and stretched, giving a big yawn.

"Dib-Stink!" A voice sounded from the darkness causing the young boy to jump.

"Zim?" Dib stood up.

"Silence human!" The voice came from near the mouth of the cave. "Do you have a death wish or something?"

"Where are you? I can't see?" Dib flailed his hands wildly in the dark air.

"Silence!" Zim's voice came right next to his ear. Dib jumped away from Zim.

"Are you crazy!" Dib almost screamed.

"Silence!" Zim slapped a gloved hand over the boy's mouth which finally made Dib shut up.

Zim took his hand away with a disgusted look, flicking it rapidly. "Ugh, now I have Dib-germs." He groaned.

"So why do I have to be quiet?" Dib whispered, whipping off his mouth with his sleeve.

Zim looked towards the mouth of the cave. "There is something out there."

Dib tried to pear out and get a sense of what Zim was talking about, but it was much to dark to see much of anything. "What do you mean?"

"It's lumbering about out there, making a lot of noise." Zim said, moving towards the exit to the cave, but careful not to step to close in fear if getting burned by the water.

Dib listened closely and believe it or not, he could actually hear something thrashing around out there.

Whatever it was, it was big. It's heavy footsteps dragged along the surface of the stone with an eerie scratching noise. It's breathing was rough and almost grunting. It kinda sounded like a big fat guy with long toenails.

"What do you suppose it is?" Dib asked.

Zim rolled his eyes at the boy. "Which one of us lives on the planet again? Oh, right, that would be you Dib-smell."

"What does that have to prove?" Dib snapped back.

"I have no clue about what resides in your smelly backwater world. You figure out something for once! Irk, sometimes I think there isn't a brain in that giant head...just empty space." Zim sneered.

"My head's not big!" Dib said, doing his best to keep his voice low.

The footsteps seemed to be getting closer now. The sous bounces off the walls of the cave and rang in Dib's ears. Instinctively, Dib took a step back.

"What do we do?" He shot at Zim.

Zim didn't respond.

A great smell washed over the cave from the outside. Dib covered his nose and Zim flattened his antennae, both expressing disgusted faces.

"What in the universe could smell so bad!" Zim growled.

"I know! It smells like rotten fish and wet dog!" Dib moaned, forgetting that they were suppose to be quiet.

The footsteps were growing ever closer. Each foot dragging along with great effort across the stone. There was a splash of water, probably meaning that whoever was out there just stepped into The small creek.

Dib motioned for them to step back into the cave more. Zim didn't seem to like the idea, either it was hurting his pride to follow commands OR he didn't like being cornered in a cave. But he followed suite. It was either back into the cave or go outside in the rain.

The splashing got closer and eventually stopped all together. The footsteps got louder.

Zim slowly retracted his spider legs, careful not to make a sound.

A dark shadow cast itself over the entrance to the cave. Two glowing brown eyes glared down at the boys with interest.

Suddenly a flash of lightning illuminated the area, revealing their house guest.

"Oh my God." Dib breathed.

"What...what is it?" Zim asked quickly, looking ready to spring at any moment.

"It's-a bear." Dib said. "It's a freaking black bear!"

"Are they dangerous?" Zim whispered.

"Not if we be very quiet." Dib lowered his voice to a hushed whisper. "Maybe he'll go away."

Zim nodded bluntly and stiffened up. Dib tried hard to make his heart stop beating so fast.

The black bear had to be young. It was about the size of a deer. It sniffed the air with its long black nose and let out a huff.

The bear started to step into the cave. Its fur was dripping from the rain outside. Zim seemed to notice this and cringed away a bit.

However, the bear caught the slight movement. It's stance changed dramatically; from nonchalant to murderous. It let out a gruff howl and stomped its clawed foot on the stone.

"What do we do now?" Zim turned his head at the young boy.

Dib racked his brain, trying to remember all that seemingly useless information that Mrs. Bitters had taught them about wild animals.

"Oh! I think we're supposed to make a lot of noise!...Which you should be good at." Dib added smugly.

Zim rolled his eyes and rose up on his spider legs higher above the bear. He almost hit his head on the cave ceiling.

"BEAR! LEAVE NOW! YOU KNOW NOT OF WHO YOU DEAL WITH! LEAVE NOW OR FEAL THE MIGHTY WRATH OF ZIM!" The young alien yelled in a high pitched voice at the bear.

The animal looked at Zim nervously and backed up a bit.

"THAT'S RIGHT! GET OUT OF HERE OR I WILL DESTROY YOU!" Zim pointed with a gloved hand. "YOU'RE SMELLY AND UGLY LIKE DIB!"

"Hey!"

"GET OUT OF HERE STINK-BEAST!" Zim yelled and for emphasis, slashed the shoulder of the bear with his spider leg.

The bear growled, but backed away from the two boys. He turned and bounded away into the forest.

Zim cleared his throat and got off his spider legs.

"You dont think that was another meekrob do you?" Dib asked.

Zim rolled his eyes. "No stupid, a meekrob wouldn't back off that easily. The creature was too stupid to be a meekrob."

"Ah."

The boys shared an awkward silence.

"Well." Dib yawned. "I'm going back to sleep. Try not to get into any more danger."

Zim scoffed, sitting down as well. "Zim will try his hardest." 


	8. Chapter 8

Hollow  
>Chapter 8<p>

Dib awoke to a brilliant white light flaring through his eyelids.

The young paranormal investigator quickly covered his face with his hands. "Er-five more minuets Gaz...I don't wanna go to skool today!"

"Boy, wake up." A low voice hissed quietly.

The familiar voice instantly made Dib sit up quickly. He opened his eyes, but all he could see was blurry light. He was confused for a second and couldn't remember where he was. Then, it all flooded back to him.

"Zim?" Dib asked, trying to squint his eyes in order to see what was causing the light.

Dib fumbled around for his gasses that had fallen off of his head while sleeping on the rocky ground.

"Here." the voice said again.

Dib looked up towards the glowing blob and could barely make out the shape off his glasses.

He took them hesitantly and slipped them down over his face.

The white blur slowly came into focus.

"Oh crap." Dib breathed.

The meekrob was, well, glowing white as if energy was just pouring out of them. It had two long tentacles coming from where the feet should be; they reminded Dib of a squid. Its body looked like a set of lungs surrounded by smaller squiggly tentacles. It's eyes were a milky blue and almost lifeless. One eye contained a scar completely on top of it. Floating over its head was what looked like a small triangle. Almost like a shark fin.

The meekrob raised its two long tentacles. "I come in peace. Don't go crazy on me."

Dib just continued to stare.

"Just, let me have a chance to explain myself okay? Without having to try and kill you."

Dib looked behind the meekrob at Zim; confused at why the irken hadn't tried to kill the meekrob yet. The young alien's eyes were closed. For a second, Dib thought that Zim was dead (Which he felt strangely nonchalant about). However, closer observation showed that Zim was still breathing slowly and steadily.

"Oh, I made him fall asleep. He can't harm us." The meekrob explained after catching Dib's gaze.

"How?" Dib finally found his voice. He sat up off the ground so that he was eye level with the alien.

"Messed with his pak a bit. Very simple. I could teach you if you want." The meekrob almost seemed to smile.

Dib just stared back at it. "Did I miss something?"

"What do you mean?" The meekrob turned its head a bit.

"You were threatening my life not six hours ago." Dib said. "So I'm confused as to why you have suddenly opened up your generosity."

"Ah, you humans, always looking for some sort of catch." The meekrob snorted. "Well you are correct. I do wish something of you."

"Why would I do something for you!" Dib felt anger bubble up inside him. He had no clue where it was coming from.

"I traveled into your mind Dib." The meekrob hissed, floating closer to Dib's face. "I saw what you want. You want to be considered a hero. You want your parent to see you as a sane living being."

"My dad knows I'm not crazy!" Div said, suddenly standing up.

The meekrob just sighed. "Does he Dib?"

"...well...of course he does...or he will after he sees Zim." Dib said.

The meekrob did not react. "I know you feel some conflict about turning Zim into your swollen eyeball group."

Dib started to protest, but the meekrob held up one of his tentacles. "I saw your mind remember? Don't deny it. You feel that deep down, Zim may have some good in him.". The meekrob paused. "Then again, all humans are programed to think that. But Dib, you're smarter than that...You've seen what that irken has done! He needs to be shot down like the mad dog he is."

Dib bit his lip. Unsure of what the meekrob was saying. "How can I trust you? After all, you did knock me out and drag me out here."

"Please, allow me to explain myself." The meekrob said. "Just, let me start from the beginning. It'll be easier that way."

Dib sat down again, still not thoroughly convinced. But he motioned for the meekrob to go ahead.

"Well, let's see...where to start?" The meekrob held up his tentacles to its forehead, seemingly forming the words in his head. Then, he looked up at Dib. "You know what, it'll be easier to show you."

The meekrob held up its tentacles up to Dib's forehead. Dib jumped back quickly. "What do you think you're-" But before he could finish, the slimy tentacles made contact with his skin on his head.

Dib's vision went black.

There was an eerie darkness around him. It was cold. Freezing cold. Goosebumps rose all over the skinny boy's flesh. Dib let out a yelp of surprise at the sudden environment. He grasped his arms together, trying to warm himself up a bit. "What-what's going on!" Dib called out into the darkness, hoping that the alien had not just tricked him into something.

"It's okay." A voice echoed through the darkness. "You're safe. Nothing can harm you here."

"Where am I?" Dib shuddered violently.

"You're in my memories." It said in a sing song voice. "This is how I see your memories as well. However, it seems our kind is a bit more adapt to the temperature drop then your kind. Sorry about that. Try to ignore it."

Dib bit back a snarky comment and instead tried to hone in on the Meekrob's voice. "Where are you?"

"That is unimportant." He announced. "Just pay attention."

"Okay, I guess. I'm all ears." Dib rubbed his arms together in an attempt to warm himself up.

"Oh, where to start? Well, I'm Commander Argon from planet Meekrob, as you already know."

Suddenly, a bright planet seemed to just appear out of nowhere in front of him. Dib jerked back as the small planet seemed to grow in size and detail. It was a small blue dessert with a few dark rings around it. Then, as soon as the planet had been formed, small stars started to appear in the background as well as a moon and a few other planets. It was almost like watching one of those imax 3D movies.

Dib blinked and looked all around him. He now appeared to be floating in space; infinite darkness spreading out in all directions and dotted with the few stars and planets.

The paranormal investigator returned his attention to the planet. "Is that Planet Meekrob?"

"Yes." Argon's voice called out. "My leaders called us out on a mission."

A little space ship appeared behind the planet and soared towards Dib. The ship got closer and closer. Dib was afraid it would hit him so he tried to move, but his feet wouldn't move. The boy began to panic as the ship inched towards him. However, when the ship was merely inches away, it completely vanished. Dib let out a sigh of relief.

"Memories can't hurt you human." Argon said mockingly.

"Oh." Dib breathed.

The planet scene blurred out and faded into a ship scene. Dib looked around now. There were a series of control panels on tables around the ship. There were three big chairs, each containing a meekrob. Argon was in the middle, appearing to be driving the ship with a control stick. There were huge windows in front of the aliens, showing planets whizzing by. It looked like the inside of Zim's ship but had strange writing all around it that he had never seen before. It definitely wasn't irken.

"Anyway, my team and I were headed to a system near here to pick up some supplies for the war from our allies in the resisty." Argon continued. 

"Resisty?" Dib asked confused. "What is that?"

"It's an intergalactic organization fighting against the irken army. But that's probably more info than you need."

"And they call that the resisty? That's a-"

"Yeah yeah, a stupid name. Now stop talking and listen. Our ship had some mechanical failure with what you would call a Global Positioning System." 

Suddenly the controls on the ship started to shine bright red, casting an eerie glow over the scene. An alien siren went off, spitting different words that Dib just couldn't understand. Then, in a flash of bright white, the ship shuddered and lurched to the left.

"We accidently hit an asteroid."

Dib almost screamed as the ship started to fall from the sky. The meekrob quickly started to yell at each other and pressed a variety of buttons. But nothing seemed to be happening. Then, the controls went dark and all that you could see was the surface of the planet out of the window.

The scene went dark again. The next thing Dib knew, he was staring at a burning ship imbedded into the dirt of Earth. A struggling body caught his eye. Dib turned his head towards the body. One of the meekrob was bleeding a dark black substance that he guessed was blood. He lay very still under some rubble. The scene was now becoming blurry. The last thing that appeared was a shadow that hung over the poor dying meekrob. Then there was darkness once again.

"One of my crew mates was named Den; he was injured the most. Somehow, you were walking by when we crashed and pulled Den from the wreckage. My other partner Shel and I were unconscious when this happened. When we woke up, Den was gone and we had a broken engine."

Dib's vision returned and he saw the two meekrob arguing about something in front of the ship that was now NOT on fire.

"Our systems were still online. I tracked Den in your house while Shel looked for help. She found that your irken was on this planet. When we asked for help, he laughed and hung up. So we had no choice but to come after and force him to help."

Dib's vision now showed Zim's familiar purple house. He was walking towards it with the other meekrob. He felt a heavy weight in his hands and looked down. There was a small laser gun clutched in his…tenticals? Oh right, he was living Argon's memory.

Dib floated up to the door. But instead of opening it, he simply fazed right through it.

He slowly crept through the living room of the house. There was the small familiar couch that he had seen dozens of times after sneaking into the young alien's house. The television was blaring a commercial for that new poop cola that had just came out a while back. Dib inched his way towards the kitchen. However, something caught his eye. He spun around fast, pointing his gun at the couch. "Who goes there?"

Dib let out a mental groan. It was Zim's crazy robot slave that liked to call him Mary for some reason.

"Take us to your master." The words flowed out of his mouth through the meekrob.

The robot gave him a goofy smile. "OKEY DOKIE MISTER SQUIDY!" The robot got off the couch and ran towards the kitchen area.

Dib felt excitement well up inside of him. He was actually going to be able to see Zim's lab! Of course, he had seen it before. But it always filled him with glee to see the underground base…and maybe destroy a few of Zim's projects. However, it was pretty hard to get down there…especially with Zim's security system.

Dib followed the robot closely. He could almost feel Argon's anxiety. He felt his grip, or Argon's grip, intensify around his gun causing it to rattle slightly. However, once the other meekrob floated into view, Argon seemed to have calmed down a bit and the rattling stopped.

The robot ran over to a toilet bowl in the middle of the kitchen, his lounge lolling out of his mouth like a dog. He then stuck his head straight into the porcelain bowl. What?

Dib held back a burst of laugher as the robot screamed down into the toilet. He wasn't sure he could laugh anyway, so there really was no point to holding back. But why would the robot scream into the toilet bowl! And why on EARTH was there a toilet bowl in the middle of a kitchen anyway. Zim is so weird…

Apparently Argon also found this weird. He cleared his throat (or whatever meekrobs have). "Where is your master?"

Gir turned towards the meekrob, surprisingly pretty dry considering he had just had his head in the toilet. "He down there!"

"He's in…that bowl thing?" Shel asked beside him.

"YESH!" Gir said, grinning like a mad man.

Dib just laughed at the scene; unable to keep it in any longer. However, like predicted, no sound was emitted. 

Argon was the first to react. He floated closer to the toilet bowl and looked inside it.

"It's an elevator." He muttered to himself.

Dib blinked. So THAT'S the other elevator! He knew there had to be more than three!

Argon motioned to Shel and they both got into the bowl. As soon as Gir hopped in, the lift began to lurch downwards. The sudden motion made Dib's head swim a bit. Or was it Argon's head that was swimming. This was getting a bit confusing to him.

The lift steadily descended. While they were waiting, Shel checked her laser gun multiple times, most likely burning off nervous energy. Argon seemed to be putting on a straight face for the both of them. He seemed the stronger of the two.

Finally, after what felt like an hour, the lift came to an abrupt halt and the doors behind them opened with a disturbing hiss.

"Oh good, Gir. Come here so I can stuff your head full of rabid weasels." Zim was sitting down at his desk, poking a cage of…well rabid weasels.

Argon wasted no time. He dashed forward. Dib felt his vision blur a bit. Now he was standing at the back of the lab, watching Zim scream and writhe on the floor. He was screeching in a language that Dib had heard, but could not decipher the meaning as well as mixing in a few English curse words here and there.

"Get out of my head you filthy-" Zim broke off again into the weird language. Dib noticed the amount of green blood that was dripping onto the floor. He got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach as he saw Zim's gashing hole in the side of his head. It was a lot larger than his had been, and bleeding a lot worse.

The meekrob was doing a lot of damage. Dib saw Zim's eyes cloud over a bit and his limbs seemed to be moving slower.

Zim let out a blood curdling growl and retracted his God awful spider legs. The alien lashed out at nothing, his eyes now a misty pink. Zim ran into some door and started hacking away at it with his mechanical legs; all the while, screeching with malice.

Dib had to advert his eyes for a while. It was getting a little too intense.

Then, after one last roar, the alien grew silent.

Dib looked at Zim, who was now basically unconscious on his spider legs.

"There, that wasn't too bad." Argon's voice drifted out of Zim's mouth unnaturally.

"Do you have control?" The other meekrob asked, floating up to Zim's form.

"As much as I can." Argon panted. "The pak has a mind of its own. I have very little control over the mechanical legs."

"So what now?" Shel asked.

"We have to act fast so that we don't lose control." Argon said, he sounded hurt and tired.

"Let's go pick up Den. I'm sure the alien on this planet will be scared of the irken and just hand Den over." Shel suggested.

Argon nodded using Zim's limp head.

Dib's vision blurred once more. The next thing he knew, he was sitting on his bed, looking up at Zim's form.

"Give us the alien!" Argon hissed.

"Never Zim!" He felt the words flow out of his mouth before he had time to think. "You just want to hurt him more!"

Dib turned his head down to the wounded meekrob on the floor; now bandaged up and breathing at a steady pace.

"You don't understand human!" Argon said, lifting up one of Zim's spider legs. However, Dib couldn't tell if the meekrob was purposely doing so, or the pak was trying to regain control.

"Oh, this is going to get us nowhere!" Shel's voice sounded to the right of him. Dib barely had time to yell before the meekrob lodged its way into his brain.

….page break…..

Dib's vision returned in a flash, leaving him dazed and a bit dizzy. He drew in a gulp of air, his lungs burning from lack of oxygen. It felt as if he had been holding his breath. Dib could feel the cave floor under him. He was back in reality. He felt the meekrob's tentacle come off of his face and a sticky substance came up in its place. Dib put a hand to his head and winced in pain. He removed his hand from the newly formed cut, staring at the blood that dripped onto the floor from his fingers.

"Sorry! Probably shouldn't have kept you under for so long." The meekrob said guiltily.

"Are-are you kidding!" Dib gasped. "That was-awesome! Not every paranormal investigator...gets to experience mental links with an alien! That was SO cool! You don't mind if I tell the swollen eyeballs about this do you?"

The meekrob shrugged. "Suuuuuure." But in reality, he didn't think the group would actually believe the young boy. So there was no harm in letting him have a bit of excitement in his life. "But let's get back on the topic of you helping us." 

Dib shook his head. "Why couldn't I remember any of this happening?"

"Shel wiped your memory. We couldn't have any humans coming after us. Especially after we saw you letter to your swollen eyeballs." The meekrob remarked.

Dib gave a grimace. "Yeah. Okay, so why did you come get us during skool?"

"Well, we had been operating under the cover of night when we came to get Den. However, we were worried about being spotted by a human during the day. And we didn't have a disguise like the irken. So Shel and I decided to use you two as disguises." Argon seemed to flush a bit. "Sorry 'bout that, but we needed something."

"So you dragged us out here and left us to basically die!" Dib was getting frustrated by the alien.

"Well, no. You had walked by here before apparently because you saved Den around here. So we knew that you could get home. And we did leave the irken somewhat weaponless..." Argon protested.

"And then you tried to kill us with that cougar!"

"Well, no, not exactly. I attacked Zim, not you."

Dib blinked. "Okay...true. But still, why did you have to do that? We weren't doing anything. Or at least, I wasn't doing anything wrong."

Argon shrugged, which looked a bit awkward with his tentacles. "Den was getting worse and the ship isn't repaired yet. We couldn't figure out how to use the Irken's inferior tools to fix the ship. Now here comes the part where we bargain." Argon paused. "We only need the irken to fix the ship. If you let us take him, we will be very grateful. We won't take him away from you. In fact, if you help us heal Den a bit, we can kill the irken and leave him to you so that you can turn him in easier."

Dib just stared. He wasn't sure whether to hug the meekrob or tell him to shove off. "Why do you hate the Irkens so much?"

The meekrob sighed and slouched a bit, suddenly making him to look older. "Same as you boy; we found one trying to take over our planet and sought to protect it. The Irkens are a horrible race of killing machines. We want to exterminate them and take back the planets they conquered. They hate us because they don't want to be taken over. It is a mutual hatred."

Dib hesitated. "So you really think Zim poses a threat?" Dib asked. "Because I've been fighting him forever and he hasn't ever done anything that I can't stop."

"I've seen your-" The meekrob started but Dib just cut him off.

"Right right, seen my memories. Stop bringing it up. I don't need you to give the full story of my life. I've already had that happen once before and it got kinda awkward when they got to the adolescent years. I was able to get out of there before that ship talked about my birth and all-"

The boy was just ranting now. So Argon took a deep breath to try to stay calm. "Dib, can we focus please?"

Dib's rather large head whipped up. "Oh right, sorry. Zim threat- go on."

"So we believe that the irken could become a threat. As you have seen in a couple endeavors, it had gotten the best of you and lead to some drastic consequences. Like the destruction of planet mars."

"Well that wasn't-"

"And the replacement of your lungs with a child's toy?" Argon pressed. "Or the giant hamster? Or the giant thing you call santer claws or something like that!"

Dib fell silent.

"You can easy remove the threat, like when you had worked so hard to do back when you were a bit younger. And all I ask for is a bit of your help." Argon almost sounded like he was pleading now. He checked his wrist watch, or tentacle watch..."My coworker only has a short amount of time. I don't want him to die."

Dib glanced one more time back at the unconscious alien, then turned his gaze towards the ground.

"Please?"

"...Alright. I'll do it. For the fate of all mankind…and your friend's life. I will help." 

A/N: Hey guys! SO SORRY FOR THE WAIT! I've had finals to study for and stuff of that nature….Anyway, I really don't like putting the OC's in here (Argon, Shel, and Den) but they were necessary. So just think of them as those meekrob who visited Dib during Dib's Wonderful Life of Doom and the world will be a better place.


	9. Chapter 9

Hollow  
>Chapter 9 <p>

This was the second time. Irk almighty; he hadn't slept this much since before he was activated.

Zim forced his eyes awake even though they threatened to stay close. His body felt heavy and slow. Even moving his arms to stretch his sore back seemed like a colossal waste of energy. Gesh, he musta been pretty hurt to have been sleeping.

It was dawn, or so he thought. It was still a bit confusing to the young irken. Earth's poles were a bit different than Irk's so he often had trouble finding north and south. Well, whatever time it was, the sun was just appearing over the horizon.

Zim yawned and wiggled his antennae. The crisp water particles of dew burned his stalks a bit as he scented the area. Dew? Guess it was morning then. Zim had often cringed at going out to skool during the filthy earth season known as spring. Gah, it always rained too much.

Wait a second.

Zim flicked his left stalk up once more. He caught the faint scent of the human and another life form. It was stale…

Zim felt his head. No cuts or blood came off. His glove was a bit wet though from the dew which made his skin sting. He hissed and whipped the drops off with the dry back of his glove.

Zim stood slowly. He felt a bit uncoordinated today and it showed when he almost stumbled trying to get up. Irk, he would have to get his pak checked out when he returned to his marvelous base.

Speaking of which, where was the Dib-worm? All Zim wanted was to get home so he could contact the tallest about the infuriating meekrob (and how he vanquished the meekrob with his amazing Zimness and tricking the human into helping…which was mostly true…) and maybe get cleaned up a bit. His uniform had smelly earth dirt on it.

"Dib filth." Zim called out, walking towards the front of the cave. He blinked at the warm sun peaking its way up behind the green leaves and casting shadows over the river. "Where are you?"

Suddenly, the bushes to his right shuttered violently. Zim jumped, spinning around on his heals and activating his spider legs. "WHO GOES THERE?"

Dib stumbled out of the bush with a relatively impressive force. And then stumbled on the uneven rocks of the river. With a splash, he fell face first into the crisp, cold water.

"Oh, it's just you." Zim rolled his eyes and retracted his spider legs without even checking to see if the human was alright. He started walking towards the tree line. "Let's get a move on. We already

Dib gasped for breath as he pulled his head out of the water. He quickly pulled himself up to his feet. "Hey! Where are you going?"

Zim just ignored this and shrugged. "You coming or what? I want to get home before another filthy rain storm comes again."

Dib dashed in front of the alien. He was wearing a creepy smile, and his wet spiky hair was dripping in front of his face. "Don't you think we should stay here? I mean…there could be more rain! Yeah! More rain!"

Zim gave him a confused look. He looked up at the sky. Birds were singing in the tree tops. Squirrels chartered in the leaves. The sun shone brightly over the scene. And not a cloud in the sky. He then gave Dib a 'you're insane look'.

"Stop messing around filth. Let's get moving." Zim said, pushing the young boy away with a flick of the wrist.

"But-but…this is how it looked yesterday before it stormed." Dib protested, stepping in front of Zim once more.

Zim was getting frustrated now. "Maybe if you studied in skool instead of glaring me down the whole day, you would have learned more about your own weathering systems."

And with a huff, Zim stormed past the human. But he wasn't able to get very far.

He raised his antennae up as he heard a sudden noise from the closest bush. His instincts suddenly screamed at him to duck. Zim did so and watched as two tentacles soared over his head.

Zim was barely able to let out a snarl as the next attack came. The meekrob scum stepped out of the bush, flailing its glowing tentacles at the alien. Zim sidestepped and dodged as the meekrob advanced. The alien was mildly aware that Dib was yelling in the background but not doing much to help.

The meekrob thrust its right tentacle at his face, but Zim caught it with ease, giving him enough time to extend his spider legs.

Zim gave the meekrob a cold hearted laugh and thrust one leg into the meekrob's left tentacle. The meekrob screamed in pain, black blood oozed from the wound that it created. It started howling to Dib, begging him to do something.

The bespectacled human just stood by; his eyes wide and unmoving.

Zim then pressed the spider leg towards the meekrob's throat. "Why won't you just DIE! Don't you know that you shouldn't mess with an invader of the MIGHTY IRKEN A-" Zim was cut off as a blinding pain flooded into his head. He felt himself fall off the meekrob; his mechanical legs going limp.

There was a dull pain in the side of his head. Zim looked up with blurry vision and saw the Dib-stink holding a bloodied green branch in his four digit hand. The boy dropped the stick with a look of disgust and turned his head away from the alien.

The meekrob then appeared in Zim's line of sight. "Thanks." Its voice sounded muddled from the ringing in his antennae. "Another second and I would have been Slorbees' food. Let's get him to the ship-"

Zim could no longer hear their voices. The pain was growing too intense. His pak was shutting down to repair the wounds the stupid traitor had caused. Oh well, what had he expected from a stinking human.

…PAGE BREAK…..

"Wake up irken." Zim felt a sharp pain of his cheek. He groaned, opening one eye slowly. There were two blurry meekrob floating in front of him, glaring him down. Zim shook his head, trying to make his vision clear up. Irk, his head hurt worse than that time his space ship had crash landed in training and he hadn't been wearing a helmet. (Because the mighty Zim has no need for helmets).

He quickly tried to rub his temples, but found that his hands would not move. Suddenly realizing his hands were tied back behind his pak, the alien momentarily panicked. He tried to flee but found that his legs were bound as well with tight rope. Zim growled angrily and tried to retract his spider legs. However, right as he issued the command to his pak, a monumental pain crashed onto his back. He silently screamed, unable to form words.

"Stand still irken, or I'll hit your pak harder next time." The male irken hissed.

Zim fell over panting and trying hard not to be sick. Overwhelming amounts of pain rushed all over his body like a cloud. Those sick cowards! Hitting an irken while they were tied up! The irken empire would never hit a man that was down! an irken would stand them back up and THEN kill them.

"Let me go!" His voice was raspier than he had expected it to be. It almost sounded like he had been dead for a week.

"You think we're gullible enough to do that? You'd kill us all." The male snarled, raising the same bloody stick that Dib had hit Zim in the head with. "No…you are going to pay for your insubordination."

Zim felt another blow to his pak, but this time it didn't feel as hard as the first time. Probably only used to add effect and terror to what they were saying.

However, that didn't mean it did not hurt. Zim sucked in a breath of air, panting heavily and almost gagging a bit. Tallest almighty! Why did they have to hit his stupid pak!

"What do you want of the almighty Zim?" He spat angrily.

"We need you to fix our ship." The meekrob held up Zim's chin with a tentacle, forcing the irken to look at him.

"Ha! You fools can't even fix your own ship! PATHETIC! PATHETIC I SAY!" Zim screeched, quickly jerking his head from the Meekrob's grip. The sudden movement did give him a slight headache and made him a bit disoriented. He shook his head once more in order to stop his vision from swimming.

"You will fix our ship and you won't give us any troubles." Zim felt pressure being put on his pak. "Do we have an understanding?"

Zim wanted nothing less than to tell the aliens to shove off and go get some other soul to do their drone work. But the pressure on his pak persuaded him to keep his mouth shut…for now.

Zim mulishly shook his head in agreement. The meekrob gave him a smug look and took off his bonds on Zim's clawed feet and hands. Though he kept a constant pressure on Zim's pak.

"Get to work irken." The meekrob growled, pushing Zim to his feet.

Meanwhile, Dib was watching the scene happen from inside the huge meekrobian ship. After Argon and himself had dragged Zim to the ship, Dib was given the task of helping Den by cleaning his wounds.

The ship was much larger on the inside than it appeared on the outside. The ship resembled that to a flying house. There were three small beds, one of which Den was lying on, a small kitchen-like area, a control room, and some sort of closet. The ship was about the size of a small RV and had the basic shape of one too. Argon had told him that they had placed a holograph over their ship to make it look like an earth RV, but apparently they didn't really have a clue what an RV looked like. Dib could instantly tell it was a ship and not an RV…but apparently it had fooled a few random teenaged hikers according to Den.

Den looked a lot better than how Dib had seen him through the Meekrob's memory. While the wounds still bled a bit, and some bruises scattered his body, there seemed to be no horrible damage done. Plus, he was no longer unconscious which is always a good thing.

Dib tried to focus on re-bandaging Den's wound instead of looking out of the cockpit window at the irken being beaten with a branch. Dib flinched as the branch went down hard on Zim's pak. He heard the irken yelp and gag a bit.

"We all really appreciate your help Dib." The meekrob said in a cool and collected voice. Dib had only known the meekrob for a few seconds and already knew that he was most likely the calmest one on the team. He had a certain air around him that made you just feel happy.

"'s no big deal." Dib said, glancing up once more at the outside world. "I'm just here to help."

Den caught Dib's glance. "You're worried about the irken." It was less of a question and more of an observation.

Dib paused and looked back down at his work. "How did your war with them start?"

Den took in a breath. "They sent an invader called Tenn to our planet but she was exposed due to some malfunction in her plans. We had originally been a neutral planet in the irken war, but once they attacked us, we fought back hard."

Dib nodded and tied down the last of the bandages. "There, I hope that feels better. I'm not much of a doctor or anything."

Den smiled. "No, that feels a lot better thanks." The meekrob floated up off of the bed. "Well, I guess we should go check on my team-mates and make sure they haven't killed the irken yet."

"Yeah, heh heh, good one." Dib chuckled halfheartedly.

"No, I was being serious. We should make sure they haven't killed him." The meekrob said, floating slowly towards the door.

Dib bit his lip, quickly following after and all of a sudden feeling a bit guilty.

The pair stepped out of the ship. The other two meekrob were now standing by the ship's walls looking bored. Argon was now holding a much more bloody stick than before. Zim was nowhere to be found.

For a split second, Dib felt a bit relieved. Perhaps the irken had gotten away after all. However, a voice from underneath the ship squashed that hope.

"Your engine was fried while entering earth's stupid atmosphere. Stupid earth…Irk in all its superiority has NO atmosphere. Anyway, Zim just needs to cut a few wires and then we attach these together…and there! Perfection! Zim is a genious!"

Zim's head popped out from underneath the ship. He had grease stains covering his cheeks as well as a bit off blood running down his head. "There, Zim has fixed your inferior vortian designed ship. Can Zim leave now! I have conquering to do! SO MUCH CONQUERING"

Zim got out from underneath the ship. Dib noticed that his pak was sparking a bit and looked sort of smashed.

Suddenly the irken turned and saw Dib.

A variety of expressions came onto the irken's face…the most prominent being anger and loathing. Zim's antennae flattened straight down onto his scalp.

He lunged at Dib, almost like an animal. In one swift, fluid motion Zim had Dib pinned to the ground. He was growling something in another language and trying to claw at the boy's face. Dib could make out some English words though…like traitor, and stink beast, and, well a lot of four letter words.

And almost as soon as it had come, it was over. The meekrob had grabbed Zim and peeled him off of the boy.

Dib blinked as the meekrob re-bound the irken with rope. Argon snarled something like "I thought we had an understanding". He then proceeded to rip the irken's pak off of his pak. Zim let out a terrible howl of pain, his arms flailing rapidly at the bounds.

The next thing Dib knew, he was looking down at Zim's disconnected pak on the ground next to him. Visions of that one faithful day replayed in his head and he instinctively backed away from the darn thing.

"There." Argon said, panting a bit. "That should make it easier for you to get him home. Well. We must be off. It's been…nice." The meekrob dragged out the last word like it was foreign in his mouth. "Call us if you're ever considering joining the resisty."

Den then spoke up. "Should I run a diagnosis on the ship before we take off? I'm not sure I trust the irken."

Argon nodded. "Sure, go for it. Shel and I will work on taking down the hologram."

Dib just stared at the meekrob as they went about their business and tried to tune out the yelling of the young invader.

"Dib!" Zim rasped.

The young boy either ignored him or didn't hear because he made no movement towards the alien.

"DIB!" Zim yelled louder, but it only came out as a hoarse moan. He was losing life fast which was odd…didn't Zim have more pak life? Maybe it was because he was already bleeding and such. The alien kept repeating his name over and over.

Dib finally turned around to face the alien. "What?" He asked in a flat tone.

"Dib, you need to reconnect my pak" Zim wheezed and held in a cough.

"Why should I?" Dib said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"You know why!" Zim screamed hoarsely; unable to project his normal volume. "When I die, that thing attaches itself to the next living thing, ergo you. And then you die! And then it attaches it to another human. And then it dies. And eventually were all fu-" Zim let out a racking cough, almost doubling over in pain.

"That isn't true! Why would you design a life support like that? You're bluffing." Dib scoffed.

"No! It is a last defense mechanism. Once the invader dies, the Pak finishes the job! It doesn't kill other Irkens because they already have paks!" Zim said between gasps of air. He had now been forced to use a quieter tone.

"You really think I'm that gullible?" Dib curled his lip. "I'm not falling for that Space-Boy. You can sit there and await your autopsy."

"Don't you remember anything weasel pig!" Zim snarled, finding the energy to get up on one knee to be more eye level with the human. "Remember how my Pak attached itself to you! If you were closer to it, it would crawl right into your disgusting human organs."

Dib gave a cautious look over at the metal Pak. He cringed at the thought of the wires digging into his skin once more. It was horrible the first time and he had no intentions of it happening again.

"Look, as much as I hate to admit it, I'm ties up and can't get anywhere." Zim winced. "Just put my pak on!"

Dib hesitated for a moment. He looked back at the meekrob, who were still preparing to take off.

Zim couldn't do much harm tied up...and he would much rather carry around an alive alien than a dead corpse.

Dib slowly walked over to Zim's pak. He grasped the cold metal back of it tightly in his right hand. Then, without bringing any closer to his body, Dib brought the life support system over to the alien.

As soon as the pak was at a close enough range, two metal wires shot out and dug their way into Zim's skin. A loud whir immured from the pak as it slunk closer to Zim's body. The alien breathed in a sigh of relief. This immediately caught the attention of the meekrob by the ship.

"Dib no!" Argon screamed.

The next thing Dib knew, Zim was laughing into his ears, high above the boy's head on his spider legs. Dib felt a dull pain pulsating in his chest. He looked down and saw that Zim had pierced one of his mechanical legs deep into his side. Red blood was just beginning to appear around the wound.

"Thanks." Zim growled sarcastically and took off into the woods.

Dib hear Argon fly after Zim, but it would be of no use. Zim was just too fast.

Dib's vision blurred and he felt the world spin around him. A glowing face appeared in his line of sight. It was saying something, but Dib couldn't quite hear right. It felt like his head was under water.

He grew immensely tired. His eyes grew heavy and slipped closed on their own.

Dib sighed and let the warming darkness consume him.


	10. Chapter 10

Hollow ch 10

A/N Hey guys! I could give you an excuse on why this chapter is so late…but to be honest I just forgot about it…Thank you SO SO much for being so patient. This chapter was going to be longer, but I decided to split it into two chapters, so I'm sorry it is a little shorter than the rest

Thanks again for the reviews and being patient. I won't let this go without an update for so long again! Well, enjoy!

...

Zim rushed through the tree tops. Leaves rustled around him, falling to the ground each time his spiderlegs grabbed onto a new branch.

It felt really good; swinging from limb to limb with his mechanical legs. He was happy to be free from those horrible meekrob. His pak felt a little slow from being smashed so many times, but Zim could care less. All he wanted to do was get back to his base and contact the tallest.

Then suddenly, Zim stopped his swinging. His momentum, however, did not stop. The alien all but fell off of one of the limbs. Zim quickly dug his claws into the bark to keep from tumbling face first to the ground.

A thought had just occurred to him. He still had no idea where he was.

Zim cursed loud in Vortian and clawed at the tree bark. "Stupid earth trees! Your pitiful attempt to keep Zim trapped will not succeed! I will get out of here without the help of the pathetic hyooman! I've dealt with bigger foes before! You'll see!"

Zim snarled at the tree. The tree did not respond. Probably because trees do not talk.

Zim huffed and gave the tree a kick with his boot muttering something along the lines of 'that'll teach you'. He sat down on the branch, letting his feet swing over the ledge.

Zim was about to sheath his mechanical legs when he noticed something out of the corner of his eyes.

Zim stuck out his bottom lip and sheathed all but one of the legs. He brought the sharp tip of his top right leg.

Red liquid dripped off of the blade like tip. Zim scowled and flattened his antennae at the coppery scent.

Maybe...

"No!" Zim growled and flicked the liquid off before putting the leg away. "The Dib-Filth betrayed Zim. I need no help. I shouldn't have followed him in the first place. Invaders need no one." 

His words felt hollow even to himself. He took in a deep sigh. Maybe he shouldn't have stabbed the Dib. He had handed Zim over to the meekrob…but Dib had looked sorta sorry after he saw what the meekrob were doing.

Bah…it must have been pity! Dib knew what was going to happen and his tiny hyooman stomach couldn't handle it.

But he did give Zim his pak back…but that took a lie to get him to help.

Ugh. Zim leaned against the scratched bark of the tree. All this indecision was making his pak hurt. All he knew for sure is that he had no way to get home.

Suddenly the wind picked up and Zim felt himself being pushed off the tree. The alien quickly dug his claws into the bark just to keep himself stable on the branch.

Zim swung his antennae in an arch motion, tasting the air. He caught a faint smell of liquid that hung in the air. The invader grimaced. More rain could be on its way; and he had no intention of getting wet.

Zim growled again, realizing what he would have to do. Retracting his spider legs once more, he started down the tree.

...

He was broken from the darkness by a small sharp pain on his forehead.

He let out a tired mutter and attempted to open his eyes. However, his lids felt too heavy to even lift.

His body felt heavy as well; like that time Gaz had buried him in the sand when they had gone to the beach.

There was a loud noise that rang in his eardrum. He recoiled at the sound and found himself murmuring 'go away'.

"D...Bea..."

Now his ears were ringing. He could just make out a few things that were being said.

"Di-b"

There it was again. His head started to pound severely. A bright light shone on the other side of his eye lids.

"Mom?" He whispered.

"Ew no." The voice sounded more clearly. "Now get up!"

There was another sharp pain on his forehead. Almost like someone was...flicking him?

Then all of a sudden, Dib's hearing and vision cleared up in a sudden rush. The young paranormal investigator took in a deep gasping breath and sat up, his eyes opening and wildly looking around.

Something rolled off of him with a 'hmph'.

Dib looked down at the alien at his feet.

Zim stared back with wide magenta eyes. He gave a sorta half wave with his gloved hand.

Dib was about to yell at Zim for flicking his in the head when a furious pain in his side stopped him from saying a word.

Dib fell back, clutching his side with both hands.

"You-you stabbed me!" He breathed.

Zim stood and whipped off his uniform. He had gotten a bit dusty when Dib had pushed him. "Oh yes...and?"

"You-you...you!" Dib tried to think of a word but found his mind at a blank.

Zim murmured something unintelligible and stepped forward towards him. "You're going to make it worse. Irk, would you stand STILL Dib-Beast."

Somehow it sounded more like a command than a question. Dib did his best to hold still. His side hurt so bad that he was willing to accept any help at the moment.

"Don't do- anything funny." Dib wheezed.

"Do not worry, I find nothing humorous about this situation." Zim said, bending down and grabbing Dib's trench coat and pushing it aside. "Hmm...you should have healed by now. Have you not recharged?"

Dib gave him a blank stare.

Zim scoffed. "You hyoomans really are inferior. Your healing cycle is terribly slow."

"You STABBED me!" Dib shrieked.

"Yes yes we have already covered that." Zim said, waiving him off with a flick of his wrist. "You'll need medical supplies I suppose."

Dib was at a loss for words. His thoughts felt rather slow and foggy, like someone had stuck his head in the freezer for an hour. He sat up, propping himself up onto his elbows, and looked around the clearing. The grass around him looked like it had been burnt. It was a dark brown color. It also looked as if a steam roller had come and flattened it down into a circle.

"What happened?" Dib asked slowly.

Zim flicked an antenna and turned his magenta eyes to the clearing. "It looks as if your allies took off and left you here to die."

"But-but…"

"Oh wait no-" Zim interrupted and plucked something off of Dib's wound. Dib yelped in both pain and surprise. Zim held up a small bloody (adhesive medical strip). "It seems like they left you this to cover up the gaping hole in your side. How thoughtful."

Dib felt anger swell up from inside him. "Well I wouldn't NEED a (adhesive medical strip) if SOMEONE didn't stab me with his STUPID SPIDER LEGS!"

Zim gave him a flat, and somehow very dangerous, look. "Maybe you wouldn't have a hole in your side if you didn't hand Zim over to the enemy."

Dib opened his mouth to say something, but fell quiet.

"What was that saying you pathetic hyoomans used?" Zim stood up and brushed his uniform off. "An ocular implant for an ocular implant?"

Dib raised an eyebrow. "An eye for an eye?"

Zim waved him off. "Yes, whatever, same thing. Now I have a proposition that will benefit both of us. You need medical supplies and I wish to return to my base. However, you're not allowed to team up with anymore enemies of the Irken Empire during this period and if you do, then I get to kill you. Deal?"

Dib nodded slowly. "Okay…deal." He started to get up, but the sharp pain once again caused him to fall back, panting heavily.

Zim scoffed. "We are obviously getting nowhere if you keep lying back down."

"It hurts." Dib moaned.

He heard Zim mutter something under his breath and felt clawed hands on his trench coat.

"Hey what are you doing!?" Dib asked as a rip sounded through the air.

Zim held up a long piece of Dib's trench coat. "Here, sit up and tie this around the wound. Make it tight or it won't work."

Dib took the cloth piece from Zim and watched as the alien stepped away a couple of paces. Zim looked at his gloves and almost seemed to…cower. He thrust his gloved hands into the burnt grass and whipped them off, leaving a bit of scarlet stained on the blades.

Dib sat up as best he could and tied the fabric around his stomach. The wound almost seemed to protest his doings by making the process extremely painful.

Once the cloth was in a somewhat comfortable place, Dib attempted to stand up and once again failed miserably.

"Not tight enough." Zim said not looking at the boy.

"What?" Dib breathed.

"You didn't tie it tight enough." Zim was looking at the sky. It was getting sorta cloudy. Ah, paranoid nut. He was probably worried about rain.

Dib rolled his eyes. "I don't see how tying it tighter will make it hurt any less."

"Have you been trained in the standard ways of medical processes?" Zim peaked over his shoulder. Dib gave a blank stare. "Obviously not." Zim flicked his antennae and turned his head around once more.

"have you been trained in the blah blah blah neh" Dib mimicked under his breath.

"Zim does not sound like that, hurry up." The alien snapped.

Dib finally listened and tied the cloth tighter. He bit his lip to prevent himself from screaming.

He looked up at Zim and tried once more to stand up. He expected pain, but to his surprise there was merely a small pinch. Wow, it did help.

"Told you." Zim smirked, turning around and heading towards the direction of the street.

Dib paused, looking at the burnt patch of grass on the ground. "Hey Space-Boy?"

"Yes Dib-Worm." Zim said, not looking back.

"Thanks." Dib smiled.

Zim raised his antennae but otherwise said nothing. He continued walking as Dib hurried after.


	11. Chapter 11

Hollow Ch 11

A/N: _why_ do you guys keep reading this? Haha, but seriously thanks for reading.

"I spy with my little eye something green."

"That is a stupid observation."

"No Zim, now you guess what I am looking at."

"Which one is green again?"

"…the color of your skin."

"Oh then you observe the color of my skin. Game over, victory for Zim."

Dib rolled his eyeballs letting out a long sigh. Why had he suggested playing I spy with a crazed alien?

"If I understand the rules of this…game, then it is my turn correct?" Zim asked. He was walking a few steps ahead of Dib.

"Yes." Dib clarified. "Go."

"I spy with my superior eye-" Dib scoffed at this. "something redish"

"Radish?"

"No red-ish" Zim said breaking up the two words.

"Um…is it your uniform?" Dib asked, trying to find something red.

"No." Zim smiled.

"Can you be more specific on what red-ish means?"

"I believe you hyoomans call it magenta." Zim nodded his head once as if backing up his own statement.

"Uh is it your freaky buggy eyes?" Dib smirked.

"First of all they are not insect eyes and second; no." Zim snapped.

"I don't see anything else here that is red-ish!" Dib groaned. "Just tell me!"

"Okay." Zim pointed to the ground. "It is that rock over there."

Dib paused. "…I hate you so much sometimes."

"Was that not an acceptable object to observe?" Zim asked.

"Well, no the rock was fine. But the rock color is grey." Dib said slowly.

"Bah, you hyoomans and your weird color perception. That is obviously a red-ish rock. Just like your coat or that tree over there." Zim motioned towards the forest.

"You're insane." Dib mumbled again wondering why he asked to play a game.

"Well think of a better game to pass the time with. This one is boring Zim." The alien yawned to prove his point.

"Okay how about-" Dib started however, Zim suddenly froze, his antennae perking up and his face whipping back towards Dib.

"I think I hear one of your earth land vehicles." Zim said.

And not even five seconds later, a pair of headlights peered over the crest of the hill not too far away from where they were walking.

"Hey it's a truck!" Dib started going towards the edge of the road and motioned for Zim to follow. "Maybe they can give us a ride."

Before Zim could answer, Dib ran (or rather limped) out into the street, his one arm waving while the other was grasping his wound.

"Hey! Hey! Stop!" Dib yelled.

The truck flashed its headlights in recognition. Dib smiled to himself, happy not to have to walk all the way home.

He expected the truck to slow down; however the flashing lights just came closer. Dib stopped waving, his hand limply hanging in midair. Suddenly standing in the road in front of a speeding truck didn't sound like such a good plan.

The truck started to honk instead of flashing its lights. It didn't reduce speed at all. Dib started to back up slowly.

Something wrapped around his feet and the next thing he knew he was staring at the sky…and his head _hurt!_ Two of Zim's spider legs appeared in his vision and slinked away towards the side of the road.

Dib groaned. What had he tripped over? He looked down at his feet and saw nothing but the speeding truck coming right. at. him. But amazingly, that wasn't what Dib was worried about.

Did Zim just…trip him?

He looked towards the side of the road where Zim was.

The alien was gone.

Dib suddenly became very aware of the honking truck. He tried to sit up but the pain from his wound came back in full force and he faltered.

Dib looked up once more towards the truck that was only a few feet away.

Zim had tripped him…and left him to die.

Suddenly the truck stopped honking and slowed to a sudden halt. Dib sucked in a breath and sat up on his elbows. Oh thank God they stopped!

But that was not the case. Dib heard a few muffled screams come from the truck. It suddenly lurched forward, swerving rapidly. Something was clinging onto the hood of the truck.

"What the-" Dib's words were muffled as the car sped past him. He watched as the rusty blue pickup truck drove a few feet and then turned…and fell into a ditch on the side of the road.

Dib looked at the truck awestruck as two young men (probably around 20 years old) scrambled out of the right car door screaming like chickens with their heads cut off.

Spider legs flew out from the open door and latched onto the guys' feet. They fell hard onto the ground, screeching loudly.

Zim slunk out of the car door, eyes narrowed into slits and antennae slicked back. He growled something and the two men stopped screaming.

Zim brought his other two legs out from the truck and raised them high above the two men. They cringed visibly.

"Wait!" Dib yelled hoarsely. "Zim wait! Don't hurt them!"

Zim glared at the young paranormal investigator. Even from this distance his eyes seemed dark and threatening. He snapped something at the men and started to slink towards Dib.

In no time, Zim was glaring down at him, the spider legs evenly spread out around them. Zim reached a claw hand down at Dib.

Dib panicked, not knowing what Zim was doing. "Don't hurt me." He peeped.

Zim paused, bringing his hand back. "What are you talking about? I'm helping you stand up."

Dib opened his eyes, which he had unintentionally closed. Zim stared back at him with a confused look on his face, his antennae now positioned more comfortably on his head.

"-Are you kidding me!?" Dib blurted out. Ignoring the massive amount of pain he was in, the paranormal investigator swatted Zim's hand away and forced himself up on his feet.

"What?" Zim asked, sheathing his spider legs. He gestured towards the two men. "I got us a ride."

"You-you got us a ride!?" Dib yelled.

Zim lifted an antenna in a confused look. "Yes. Was that not clear?"

Dib groaned and rubbed his temples. He was getting a headache although he was unsure whether it was from Zim's nonsense or the fact that he had just fallen so hard onto concrete. "So let me get this straight, you tripped me…"

"For bait." Zim made a go on gesture with his hand.

"For bait? Why?" Dib said trying not to punch the alien in the face.

"Well, they would be more focused on you than Zim. So they wouldn't notice as I jumped from the trees over there." Zim pointed. "To their truck. Then at the right moment I jump out and make them loose control and drive into a hole." Zim made it sound as if he thought the plan was the best plan in the world.

"And we didn't just let them pull over and give us a ride because…?"

"Oh, well they didn't seem like they were going to stop." Zim sneered. "Those two don't exactly seem like the brightest earthlings and probably would have just run you over."

Dib punched him in the arm. Zim yelped.

"So what are we going to do with these two?" Dib asked, satisfied after successfully inflicting harm on the irken. "They know you're an alien."

Zim rubbed at his arm and looked as if he was going to start sulking. "Eh, I don't know. I have two extra squids at my base. They can drive us there and I can switch their brains."

Dib blinked. "…No way am I allowing you to do that!"

Zim scoffed. "Then what do you expect Zim to do hyooman? I suppose I can whip their pathetic memories of the incident. Would that suffice?"

"Mmm, it's better." Dib hesitated. "Maybe I can-"

Too late; Zim had already turned around and was approaching the men. They flinched and started to back up towards the truck as Zim once again retracted his mechanical legs.

Dib sighed and decided to follow. He walked up a bit to the side of Zim who had now began to bark orders at the poor people.

"You are going to drive Zim and this big head boy to the local town. If you try to resist I will have to inflict horrible amounts of pain into your pathetic hyooman bodies." Zim was saying.

Dib just rolled his eyes and glanced over at the two cowering men. He almost felt sorry for them. But, they HAD almost run him over. So he didn't feel so bad.

Dib climbed into the small back seats of the pickup truck, raising his nose up at the smell. It smelt like a raccoon had died in there! And Dib should know…they had a family of raccoons get trapped in their attic once. It wasn't very pleasant.

And if it was that bad for Dib, it was at least ten times worse for Zim. The irken barely put one foot in the truck before backing away, coughing harshly and flattening his antennae onto his scalp.

Dib smiled at this. "What's the matter space boy? Is your 'superior' smelling betraying you?"

Zim waved his hand in dismissal. "Nonsense. Zim is fine." However, he still had a look of disgust plastered obviously on his face.

The two men eventually got into the truck. They were wearing trucker hats, ripped denim jeans, and flannel shirts. One had a beard while the other had more of a goatee. They were obviously from out of town.

Zim finally got into the truck, still looking rather uncomfortable by the whole thing. Zim never seemed like the type of person-er, alien, to be that comfortable with cars in the first place. Add stench to a car and that was the type of thing he probably tried to avoid at all costs.

However, Dib was happy to get a ride. His side was throbbing with a sharp pain despite the cloth. He was also feeling a bit light headed from all the blood he had lost. As soon as he sat on the leather seats in the back of the pickup truck, he felt his eyes grow heavy from exhaustion.

Zim growled a few more commands at the two men and raised his spider legs to intimidate them. However, the use of the spider legs seemed to wear him out. He seemed less angry and more tired than before. Zim probably was more than ready to be done with this experience.

Dib studied the invader for a few more seconds before slipping into a slight daze. The car was now moving and making him drowsy. He yawned and closed his eyes. A nap couldn't hurt.

"Wake me when we get there." Dib drawled out. Zim muttered something that sounded like an insult but Dib just ignored him and drifted slowly out of consciousness.


End file.
